Loyalty: Kakashi or Itachi?
by SilverPhoenix16
Summary: Holding within her a blessing, or a curse? Caught between duty and what it means to love, the girl named Night Rain questions her ties to those around her, hoping that by following her own truth she can be loved in return.
1. Chapter 1

When I was born, my brother had disappeared. Though 9 years apart, our birthdays are exactly the same. This terrified the villagers. I heard stories about his demon spirit, how he killed hundreds by himself when he was young. I heard stories about how he had killed our parents after I was born. I never wanted to be like him, because I was living in his mutilated shadow. Then, we met each other for the first time.

That day was a strange one, but I remember it as clear as glass. It was my birthday. I turned thirteen, and my brother returned. The whole town was in tyranny. They were hiding the children and the women, and the men were preparing to fight. My brother wasn't trying to hurt them, but he _was_ trying to see me. I had never met him, and I hated him. I loathed the unnecessary pain he had caused me, forcing me to grow up without parents and detested by the village. The villagers were trying to get me to go inside, but I broke away and ran to him. I started screaming.

Why? Why was he a demon? Why did he kill our parents? Why did he _kill_?

My life had been so lonely. Since I was born, I was despised. The meaning of my name, Amaya, or Night Rain, signified to everyone else that darkness had come to the Hidden Mist Village. Every day of my existence was a reminder of that. I wasn't allowed into the academy because they thought I would grow to be like him. I _knew_ I had potential, and his actions had caused my dreams to be crushed. That's why I was screaming at him.

"Exactly what I expected," Zabuza said. "A worthless brat."

"You did take everything she ever had away from her…" I heard Haku reply softly.

"Amaya," Zabuza began, "This is the way it had to be. Look at me Amaya."

I stared up at him with tears and hatred in my eyes.

"I'm here to save you from the consequences of my actions. I'm here to give you a chance, but only if you want it."

"What?" I demanded.

"You have two options. I know I've wronged you, but I'm giving you a way out. Come with me, and you'll become strong. You'll escape from this village and the hatred concentrated about you. Think of it as a new beginning. Your other option is to stay here in this living hell until you decided to escape, and even then, at best, you'll be hunted and killed."

"Please, Amaya, you don't want to live here anymore, do you?" asked Haku.

I turned and looked at the village. The streets were empty, but angry eyes watched from windows. Eyes belonging to people who had shunned me my entire life. I looked back at Zabuza and his apprentice.

"If I go with you…it doesn't mean that I forgive you."

Then, my brother turned around and walked away. Haku motioned to me, and I followed them on a boat as we left the island that had caged me my entire life.

As we traveled, Zabuza told me about our family. Our parents had been cursed. He and I were different from everyone else. He killed them after I was born, because he wanted to prevent any other offspring that would end up like us.

"Why didn't you kill me?" I asked.

"I couldn't. Not with what's inside of you."

"And what's that?" I demanded.

"A demon…just like me."

"I'm not like you," I whispered. "My life will be different."

"You're not as different from me as you think," he said. "I'm a demon. And you are too. One day, you will be able to tap into that power and control it. The demon that lies inside of you is a killer, like me. What its power is, I don't know. What I do know is that once controlled, you will be one of the most powerful ninjas in the world."

"And you'll be the one training me?" I scoffed at him.

"No!" He turned on me. "I told you I was giving you what I deprived you of. I deprived you of a life. If I train you, you won't have that. A demon can't train a demon. I'm taking you to one far stronger than I, who has both the ability and the desire to fashion you into a powerful ninja. From there, you'll go to the Hidden Leaf Village, where you'll have a new start, where no one knows you, and where the people that hate you only hate you because of who _you_ are. Not because of me."

"So, the only reason you're doing this is out of guilt!" I shouted. "You're trying to make your own actions right, but they never will be. You can't change what you did!"

And with that, my brother slapped me across the face so hard that I fell.

"He knows that," Haku said, suddenly by my side. "But he doesn't regret what he did, or who he is."

Then quietly, so Zabuza couldn't hear, Haku added, "He did this because he loves you."

"My brother isn't capable of love," I replied harshly.

"You'll learn in time that what is hidden will surprise you most of all." I looked up. Those words came from Zabuza. He stared at me for a second, picked me up off the ground, and then turned his back and kept walking. I had no choice but to follow.

When we reached our destination, I saw a boy about my age step out of a small hut. Zabuza introduced him as Uchiha Itachi. He would be the one training me.

"You're young," I commented.

"Hmph. I've had more experience than ninjas twice my age," he responded. Then he turned around and went back into the hut.

"This is where we leave you," Zabuza said. I looked at him, nodded, and then he and Haku were gone.

I entered the dwelling to find Itachi unrolling some bedding on the ground.

"You'll sleep here tonight, and we begin training in the morning," he said.

I quickly found out that while Itachi was young, he was powerful. After the first day, I collapsed, and welcomed sleep like a child welcomes his mother's arms. The next day, we were back at it.

Throughout my training, he helped me in all basic areas of ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu. I soon became powerful, and we began tapping into the power of the beast inside of me. I learned that I housed a demon of the elements, and controlling her power would give me access to fire, wind, water, and earth.

When I began to master these, Itachi introduced me to the organization he was a part of: the Akatsuki. They welcomed me, but I couldn't help feeling mistrust for some of the members. However, I resided with them for the rest of the time I was training with Itachi.

One day, while Itachi and Hoshigaki, Itachi's partner, were training me, Itachi told me I was powerful enough to learn a special jutsu.

"This is powerful, but also draining. Only those with immense amounts of chakra are able to learn it, and the demon you carry will allow you that strength."

It was a mindreading jutsu.

"Are you sure about this?" Hoshigaki asked Itachi. "If she lacks control you know what this could mean."

"Yes," Itachi replied. Then to me, "It has limitations. While you can speak to others in their minds and hear their thoughts, this jutsu will not allow you to search _through_ their minds and into their past. Doing so will cause you so much chakra loss that even with your demon, you might die."

"Well, death is always a limitation," I said to myself. "Yeah. I want to learn it."

It took me three days to even begin to understand what Itachi wanted me to do.

"You have to tap into the power of the beast!" Itachi told me sternly.

"I'm trying!"

"Well then try harder!"

I focused all of my energy to my center, determined to show him that I could do it. I suddenly felt a boost of chakra within me. I opened my eyes to see Itachi staring straight at me with his Sharingan, and I sent all of the power mentally towards him. Neither of us were prepared for what happened next.

I saw Itachi's eyes go wide, and suddenly he was on the ground holding his head. Memories started pouring through my mind, but they weren't mine. They were his. That was when I blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up three days later. Tobi was taking of me.

"Where is Itachi?" I asked.

"He left, I think. To be on his own."

"And Hoshigaki?"

"Probably fishing."

"Oh…" I replied. "Are you sure? I swear I can hear Itachi's voice nearby."

"No? He left after you blacked out and I haven't seen him since."

That was when I noticed it. At first it was a slow jumble, but as I listened closer, I could make out sporadic thoughts issuing from Itachi's head.

 _Itachi?_ I thought to him. The voice stopped.

 _Amaya?_ His thought came clearly.

 _Itachi, where are you?_

 _How much can you see…of my mind?_ Was his reply.

 _That's not the answer I was looking for. But I can't hear anything but your thoughts._

 _How much_ did _you see, when we were training?_

 _…Enough…_

And that was true. I had seen enough. I saw enough of the anger, the hatred, the pain, the legions he killed. I had also seen joy, in his early years, resentment, longing, his decision to join the Akatsuki. I had definitely seen enough.

 _I'm on my way back,_ he finally said. _Can you read Tobi's mind?_

I looked at Tobi's back; he was making me ginseng tea. It was a soft mumble, but as I concentrated on him, I heard what was going through his mind.

 _To add honey? Or not to add honey. Does she even like honey?_

Oh Tobi.

 _Yes, Itachi, I can hear him, but he's not aware of me,_ I said.

 _Good,_ was all he replied.

To give him privacy, I tried to suppress the sound of his voice. It worked, to an extent. I'd have to practice that.

Once I recovered, Itachi began training me again. This time, focusing on the mindreading. I found that I could suppress thoughts if I wanted to, and I could sense another person's presence around me, if they were within a certain distance. I could talk to other people in my mind too, which I tried with Hoshigaki and other members of the Akatsuki. For some reason though, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't completely cut off the bond I had formed with Itachi from that accident.

"You could have died," he told me one day, when we had finished training by the stream.

"But I didn't."

"I wouldn't have forgiven myself if you had died."

"Why?" I asked. "You act like you don't care most of the time."

"So you didn't see that when you hacked my memories," he smirked.

I remained silent after that. What did THAT mean?

"Wait…hacked?" I asked. "Is that what you call it? You were the one that told me to try! I see it as more of…an invitation," I ended promptly.

Then, Itachi laughed. Throughout my three years of training with him, this was the first time I had heard him laugh. He was always so…serious. This also happened to be the first conversation I had with him where we acted almost like friends. Key word, almost.

"I think you're ready," he said.

"What?"

"To go to the Hidden Leaf Village, and continue your training there."

"Oh…right," I replied, kind of sadly.

He laughed again. Wait. Two times in one day? He must just be happy that he's getting rid of me soon.

"Look," he said, "You'll be connected with me, obviously. I'll be watching you. When you go, though, just make sure no one knows about the demon." He looked me in the eye. "We've trained for three years Amaya, I know you're ready to go."

"Yes sir," I said sarcastically.

"What?" he asked. "Why the sarcasm?"

"It just, all flew by so fast I guess. I mean, three years? And I don't even feel like we're friends."

"We're not."

And with that, I left it alone. I mean, I guess we didn't have to be friends…but sharing a thought bond with someone? I felt like we should at least have some sort of relationship. I didn't want to share thoughts with someone who hated me.

Itachi took me to the Hidden Leaf Village, and told me to tell no one about him. Then, he said goodbye. When I left him, I was sixteen, and he was seventeen, the right ages to be comrades. I didn't let him know I felt that way.

When I entered the village, I was taken to see the Hokage, since I was a foreigner. They initially thought I was a spy. The Hokage, however, was wise with his age, and though concerned, saw me as who I was.

He quickly judged my skill, and guessed that there was some sort of demon inside of me. I told him about never being able to become a ninja, and my wish to be a part of the Leaf Village. I told him I had been shunned in my village, and had been on the run since I was thirteen. All of which was partially true.

Once he learned this, he called a special meeting of all the Jounin. He didn't know that I could control the demon, or how powerful she was. But, he put me through the academy anyway. At sixteen, I would be the oldest trainee there, but he had faith that I would do the village well. Because of all the concern among the Jounin, however, I was to be put on Hatake Kakashi's squad when and if I graduated from the academy. It would be a squad of four. He thought it would be the safest way.

And so, I became a student at the ninja academy, and was indeed the oldest trainee in the room. Given, many of the other students laughed at me for being so old and still yet a Genin, but they were young and naïve. They had no idea what I could do. All this? The academy? It was a charade, a formality.

We had our final test, creating three clones of ourselves. Easy.

I got my head protector, and immediately put it on my forehead, letting my bangs spill over. Then, I was told to go to the explanatory meeting or something of that sort.

When I got there, I walked into the classroom to find myself in the midst of about twelve girls fighting over something. I looked at a boy who was sitting in the spot next to where they were fighting. The moment I saw him, I knew it was Uchiha Sasuke, Itachi's younger brother. I moved through the crowd of fighting girls and took the spot next to him. The girls didn't even notice because they were so caught up in their argument.

His mind was…brooding. He was also annoyed at all the unnecessary attention. This kid took after Itachi a little bit, what with the good looks and charm. KIDDING. But really, there was so much tension, anger, and resentment pouring through his mood that I was reminded of my time training with his elder brother.

This blonde haired kid I recognized as Naruto jumped up on the table and started staring at Sasuke and all the girls were getting mad at him. Still, none of them noticed me. Some boy in front of them moved and hit the blonde haired kid…knocking him onto Sasuke where they kissed! It was about the most random thing that could ever happen…ugh.

Then Iruka-sensei announced the teams.

"Team 7, Uzumaki Naruto (the blonde haired kid), Haruno Sakura (a pink haired girl that was fighting over Sasuke), Uchiha Sasuke, and Momochi Amaya. This will be the only group of four."

 _Great, I have to be on the team with Sasuke and the Elder. At least I get to be with Sakura!_ Those thoughts came from Naruto.

 _Why a group of four?_ Sakura wondered. _Naruto's annoying, but Sasuke!"_

Man, I'm in a group of idiots. And since when did these kids start calling me the Elder? Whatever. This whole process was just a formality, I reminded myself.

Later, I finally met my squad of four. We all had something special. Sasuke was the last descendant of the Uchiha clan, and he was seeking revenge on the man who killed his family. Sasuke was also the top skilled ninja of his rank at the academy. Naruto, a very loud young man, was the keeper of the legendary fire fox. The leaders of the village put the fire fox inside of him when he was a baby. His dream is to become the greatest Hokage of them all. And last but not least, Sakura, the smartest ninja at the academy. She is beautiful, and of course as all the other girls, she loves Sasuke too.

I don't know why all the girls go crazy over him. He's really just a normal person. Sure he may have great skills, and the last of the Uchiha clan (besides Itachi), well…okay. He is kind of special.

Our team met our Jounin, Hatake Kakashi, in the classroom…he was late, and fell into a stupid trap with a chalkboard eraser. But anyway, he said that his first impression of us…well…he hated us. Then he took us outside and told us to introduce ourselves without saying anything about himself.

To keep it short, Naruto is obsessed with raman, and Sakura is obsessed with Sasuke. I read Kakashi's mind, and he had some pretty strange impressions of her, wondering if I would be the same. Sasuke on the other hand, hates a lot of things, likes few things, and aims to kill Itachi somewhere in the future. Fat Chance. Finally my turn.

"Well, I'm old, apparently. I like a lot things, hate the book Icha Icha Paradise, and don't like being disrespected," I told him.

 _Wait…is she even old enough to know about that book?_ I laughed to myself. I wasn't. But Kakashi had been thinking about it, and since he told us he hated us from the beginning, I may as well cause a rift. The other three? They totally thought I was a freak, as if that wasn't already clear.

Kakashi told us to meet him at the training grounds the next day at 5 a.m. to go through the genin test. He made it sound pretty tough. We also weren't allowed to eat breakfast.

He was late, as I expected him to be. Our first task was to get one of two bells he had with him. Whoever didn't get the bells wouldn't be able to eat lunch, and would be sent back to the academy. No wonder he didn't have us eat breakfast…

Naruto was the only one that tried a frontal attack head on. Idiot. The rest of us stayed hidden, but Kakashi still knew where we were.

And so the action began.

Kakashi had snuck up on all of them, except for me. I was hidden well, and he knew it. Well, anyway, he used some sort of genjutsu on Sakura, and she fell for it. Now it was just Sasuke and me. Sasuke used an amazing sort of jutsu, and he almost got a bell too. Kakashi was very impressed, but then he used a jutsu on Sasuke and buried him under the ground. Kakashi then took out his book Icha Icha Paradise, and walked off. Now was my chance. I decided to trick him. I quickly set up a trap and sent some shurikan flying at him from all directions. I let him dodge them, then I shrouded him in mist. He was on total guard from then on. No more cheap shots with weapons from me. I played a mind game instead.

 _Hello Kakashi._

 _What's this, you control minds?_

 _Not control them, silly sensei, I play with them._

"What!" he exclaimed out loud.

I attacked him out of the mist, still talking to him in his mind. I managed to touch a bell too, but then he disappeared. I tracked down his mind…he was above me. I controlled the mist into a swirling vortex that caught him, and he escaped easily, but panting. Still, I had gotten what I wanted. I had swirled into the vortex a small strong tornado of wind, right onto one of the bells. It fell and I caught it while Kakashi was staring at me. He started laughing.

"Training's up for you, you pass."

Later, we were going to eat lunch, but Naruto was tied up, and there were only three lunches. Sakura and Sasuke were sitting on the ground, and I was on top of one of the pillars.

"None of you need to return to the ninja academy," Kakashi said. Sakura and Naruto started cheering.

"Does that mean we three…" Naruto started, completely forgetting about me.

"Yeah you three…" Kakashi started, "Should quit being ninjas!" he finished with a shout.

Then Sakura remembered. "But what about Momochi?" and she glanced in my direction. I held up a bell and shook it. Sasuke was startled and looked up at me.

"How did she…" he began.

"Get a bell? She has both physical and mental strength," Kakashi finished for him.

He gave them a lecture about teamwork and how that was the answer to the test. He told Sakura that all she cared about was Sasuke, all Naruto cared about was doing everything on his own, and Sasuke thought the rest of them would be a burden. He told them that I knew they weren't going to help, so I did everything myself. Though still not the way it was supposed to be done, I did it surprisingly well. I smiled at that. My tactic was to come as if I was a group of people, and I got a bell.

He told me to go home, because I had finished, while the other three tried again.

"But sensei, you're contradicting what you just said. If there's teamwork involved, then I'm part of the team too," I said condescendingly.

 _Smartass_. Came his thought. "Sure. Stay here and do whatever you want."

Anyway, the whole test ended up being if we would feed our friend over disobeying his orders. I guess we passed.


	3. Chapter 3

So, as Genin, there are missions all of us go on, and I will say that they are quite boring. Most of the ones we get include finding a missing cat, weeding gardens, or walking dogs. These are the "D" rank missions. There are four ranks of missions. Academy students don't go on any, of course. Genin go on "D" missions, while Chuunin go on "C" and "B" missions. Jounin go on "A" missions. When we were in line to get our next mission, Naruto had to open his big mouth and say our missions were stupid. He said he had done too many stupid things in our missions. Sakura once again got mad at him. But, for his outburst, we did get granted with a level C mission. We were to escort an older gentleman named Tazuna to the Hidden Mist Village.

Once we got outside the village, Naruto and Tazuna got into a fight. I walked ahead to scout out some berries. I love the wild blackberries that grow through the forest, and I haven't been able to have any since I came to the village. They were perfectly ripe. I could feel Itachi laughing at me. Again with the laughing? I went back to where they were and Naruto was still arguing with Tazuna. Naruto looked at me.

"Where have you been! We've been waiting for you so we could leave!"

"Well, it looked to me like you two were arguing, so I took the chance to gather some ripe blackberries. Anybody want some?"

They all fell over and I started laughing. After that, we got on our way.

While we were walking through the forest, I noticed a puddle of water. This was weird because it was summertime and hadn't rained in days. I didn't mention this to Kakashi though. He noticed it himself. Soon we were attacked by two ninjas from my home, the Hidden Mist Village.

Kakashi was wrapped in chains and killed in front of us. That stopped the other three in their tracks immediately. Our most important mission was to get Tazuna to his village safely, so I moved. Sasuke stopped them from killing Naruto, but he didn't stop them fully. I jumped behind one of the ninjas and almost got him in the kidney with a shurikan. He got away, but I tricked him into a trap. I got caught by his poisoned claws, but I managed to knock him out the second he had fallen for it. Kakashi (he had used a replacement jutsu before) then knocked the other one out and carried them both away. We tied them to a tree and Kakashi explained some things for everyone, like how he knew they were after him, how he waited to see who the ninjas were after before actually attacking. They were both Chuunin level.

Itachi was disappointed in me, because he knew he had trained me better than to get wounded in such a battle. I got angry at that, because, after all, I'm only technically a Genin, and I didn't want to show off quite yet. He scoffed at me. I tried to block him off from my mind. It…worked. The distance between us must be giving me an advantage.

The old man, who was actually a bridge builder from the Land of the Waves, told us that he didn't know he would put us in this much trouble. He was building a bridge from the land to the island where his village was. This way, the village wouldn't be in the rule of Gatou, a tycoon with horrible intentions. He told us that he had to put in for a level "C" ninja mission because he didn't have enough money to pay for a level "A" or "B" ninja level.

We didn't know whether to continue this mission or not, until Naruto bled the poison out and gave us all a lecture.

I guess that was the best way to get the poison out. Bleed it. And so I did.

We were later attacked by none other than Zabuza. He was in a tree looking at us while balancing on his sword.

"Zabuza?" I asked in wonder. Kakashi heard me, but no one else.

"Oh, my, my, you are Momochi Zabuza, the exiled ninja of the Village Hidden in the Mist," said Kakashi.

 _Damn it,_ I thought. _Now they all know._ I turned and looked behind me. Sakura was looking at me strangely, Sasuke gave me a weird glance, but Naruto didn't notice anything…stupid.

Naruto started running forward, but Kakashi told him to stay back…it was too dangerous for them. I walked up next to Kakashi. Kakashi didn't tell me to go back, but he lifted up his head band and showed all his Sharingan.

"I'm guessing you are Kakashi, the Sharingan user," said Zabuza. "I'm sorry, but I'll need you to hand over the geezer."

"Everyone, form the swastika formation," Kakashi said calmly.

"No," I defied him. I then realized he was talking to the other three. The swastika formation only needs three people.

"Protect Tazuna-san."

"It wouldn't help anyway. You know that," I said under my breath.

"Don't join the battle."

"Too late for that," I said somewhat jokingly.

"To not interfere with the battle is teamwork," he told me sternly. Then to Zabuza, "Fight me…"

"I'm honored that I can see the Sharingan I've heard about."

Naruto then asked a series of questions about the Sharingan, which Sasuke, along with Zabuza, answered.

"Let's cut the chit-chat here. I have to kill the old geezer right away."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura got into the swastika formation.

"Help them," Kakashi told me.

"Kakashi…you know what I need to do."

"Amaya, I am your sensei! Please, do what I say! Go!"

First, Zabuza used the Mist Concealment Jutsu and disappeared. Kakashi walked forward into the mist until he disappeared. I went into the opposite direction, knowing that Haku would be nearby. I opened my mind to everything around me that had a brain of it's own. Tazuna…Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto…Kakashi…Zabuza…ah, yes. Haku. He wasn't far. I snuck up behind him and put a shurikan to his throat. He was surprised.

"I've gotten good at the silent killing technique, haven't I?" I asked him.

"But you would have killed my by now if that were the case," he answered.

"Yes, but I couldn't kill you Haku, I think of you too highly."

"Amaya?!"

"Yes," I laughed.

"What are you doing here?!" he asked.

"I'm with them," I nodded toward Kakashi and my team. "How bout you? Why do you want to kill Tazuna?"

"Well, we're working for Gatou. He hired us, but we didn't know you would be here, or them," he said gesturing once again toward my team.

"Zabuza didn't recognize me."

"Yes, but he noticed you disappeared."

"Yeah, and my team thinks I ran away," I said, reading their minds.

"Well, I'm here watching until Zabuza gets in a bad position."

"Me too, well, except, you know, for my team."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

Kakashi and Zabuza did this whole water clone thing, until Zabuza got the upper hand and kicked Kakashi into the water, where he trapped him in a water prison jutsu. Then he sent his clone back to kill the bridge builder. Kakashi told them to run away, but Sasuke was thinking, "No, we can't run. That was never an option the moment you got caught. Where the hell is Amaya? Stupid, ran away." Then he went into thinking about strategies. It was my turn to get back in there. If I didn't, they might get hurt.

"Gotta go," I said.

"See ya later…hopefully," replied Haku.

The clone of Zabuza had already knocked off Naruto's headband. That gave me an idea. Sasuke went for Zabuza, giving me the perfect opportunity. He knocked Sasuke out of the way, and I sent my headband flying at him. He stood in front of Naruto, who was frozen in fear, when my headband hit him. I assumed a defence position in front of Naruto.

"You won't hurt them. Not on my life."

"Hahaha! The little one thinks she can hurt me."

"I'm not so little anymore," I said under my breath, and I felt Naruto behind me getting up. "You ready for your chance Naruto? The chance to fight? To never back down? Because I'm here by your side. Let's do this!"

Naruto and I both ran at him. I read Naruto's mind, and he was bent on getting his headband back. I figured out what he was trying to do and copied it on the opposite side. Everyone yelled at us to get back. No. This was going to work. Naruto got hit back, but he got his headband. I had jumped at the last minute and jabbed a kunai in the back of the clone. It hadn't expected that. Its focus was on Naruto. It disintegrated, and I picked up my headband, staring at the real Zabuza.

"You can do better than that," I told him. It was too easy. He should have known. Why didn't he hit me the way he hit Naruto?

He made another clone, and this time I could feel him watching me, closely. If I tried that again, it wouldn't work. Kakashi stared at me, but I let him keep his thoughts. Naruto had fallen back, and I let them keep their thoughts also. I jumped back to them, never turning away from my enemy, my brother. Naruto spoke to him, telling him he would never back down again. Then he and Sasuke made a plan.

Kakashi told them to run again, but they didn't, and so Kakashi told them about the Village Hidden in the Mist's graduation exam. I hadn't heard of this before. During the exam, one must kill the other student to pass. It's either you, or him. But one year, my brother, who wasn't even a student, went in and killed over 100 other candidates. No wonder they wouldn't let me train as a child! That's what happened! I knew he had killed other students…but I didn't know it was this bad.

"It felt…so…GOOD!" Zabuza exclaimed, and the water clone elbowed Sasuke so hard in the stomach that blood came up through his mouth. Then the clone stepped on him. Before I could do anything, Naruto shadow cloned himself and jumped at Zabuza. Zabuza knocked all of the clones off, but then as Naruto was sliding back, he took a Fuuma Shuriken from his backpack and tossed it to Sasuke. Sasuke threw it at Zabuza, but, there was a second one in the shadow of the first. Zabuza dodged it, but the second shuriken was actually Naruto, who transformed back into himself and sent a kunai at Zabuza's arm, forcing him to sever the connection between him and Kakashi.

Kakashi was free. I stayed where I was. I knew that Haku was watching me and Zabuza. I stood with Sasuke while Kakashi and Zabuza fought. Kakashi mirrored Zabuza's movements exactly, and used Zabuza's jutsus on him. Then, when Zabuza was hit by a tree, Kakashi said, "You're going to die. It's over."

I spoke in Kakashi's mind. _Not yet. It's not over yet._ At that moment Haku sent his needles flying and knocked Zabuza out. Zabuza appeared dead, but small signals were still coming from his brain.

 _Haku_ , I spoke to him in my mind. _Where are you taking him_?

 _To heal. We will meet up with you soon, for better, or for worse_.

Then Naruto went into a little speech about why Haku killed Zabuza, a strong ninja, when Haku was only Naruto's age. Kakashi had gone to talk to Naruto, so I knelt down beside Zabuza. He looked broken.

 _Take care of him_ , I said toward Haku.

 _I will. And since when have you forgiven him?_

 _Honestly? I don't know. Somewhere in between realizing that he is my only family and fighting him._

Then Haku disappeared with Zabuza. Naruto got furious and started pounding at the ground. Kakashi stopped him.

 _He's gone,_ thought Kakashi.

 _I know. But this isn't the end._

 _Yes._

 _He's my brother._

 _I know. But never the less, what must be done will be done. Decide where your loyalties lie, because if you endanger my team, I_ will _be against you._

 _If only it weren't so, Kakashi-sensei._

 _That boy, do you know him?_

 _Yes. He's Zabuza's apprentice._

 _You knew this, and you let him get away?_ His tone was angry.

I looked at Kakashi, speechless. "Haku is the one that I respect," I finally said.

He remained speechless and thoughtless, a thing which is hard to do. And from then on, I knew he didn't trust me. I didn't have to read his mind for that.

We then began on our way, but Kakashi collapsed! I caught him before he could hit the ground.

He had used his Sharingan too much. We got him to Tazuna's house without encountering any more enemies and he rested. I sat next to him until he was awake.

"Your acting like a mother…or a lover," Kakashi said. He was still slightly out of it.

"You read too much Icha Icha Paradise," I said. "I told you I hate that book."

There was a moment of silence.

"You're uneasy about this…aren't you?" I asked.

"Yes, something is wrong here…"

"It's because he's still alive. I'm sorry. A true ninja doesn't let her past get in the way of the team, and those she cares about." A tear slid down my cheek.

"Are you just saying that to regain my trust? Or do you actually mean it?" Kakashi asked, half joking, half serious.

Before I could answer, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura walked in, and they talked about the situation with Kakashi. They all seemed surprised that Zabuza was still alive. Then Kakashi told them that he wouldn't have survived if it weren't for their help. Naruto was happy at this compliment.

The next few days we went out in the forest to train. This training was all about controlling chakra. The point was to work so hard that finding the exact amount of both physical and spiritual chakra would become second nature to us. Our task was to climb a tree, without using our hands. We had to focus the chakra to the soles of our feet, and use it to connect to the tree. Kakashi demonstrated. Kakashi threw four kunai down, and told us to mark the highest point we get to on the tree, and each time try to mark higher than the last. He told us to run at the tree to get momentum too, until we get used to it and it becomes second nature.

We first focused the chakra to our feet. Then we all ran at the trees. Naruto didn't get very high at all, then he fell. Sasuke got pretty high, but then his chakra became to powerful and he crushed the tree. I didn't get quite as far as Sasuke, but I definitely got farther than Naruto. I felt my focus slipping, then I marked my spot and jumped down. Sakura made it up on the first try.

"Well, it looks like one of the females on the squad has the most chakra control," Kakashi mentioned. Then he looked at me, as if daring to do better. That was almost the thought running through his mind at the moment too. I decided to try again, this time with a different strategy.

 _"Yeah, Sakura, good job! I always knew you were awesome!" said Naruto_. I barely heard this remark. I was trying again to focus the chakra into my feet. I felt a burning hole around them in the ground. _Too much…_ I thought. I eased up on the chakra…and felt the absolute perfect balance.

 _"Whatever…" Sasuke remarked_. By this time I was walking toward the tree, and my focus was never depleted. _Sakura's thoughts about Sasuke were like a feather blowing in the breeze to my mind._ I stepped on the bottom of the tree. _Kakashi was talking to Sasuke and Naruto about them not reaching their goals and to try harder_. I was halfway up the tree. _Sakura yelled at Naruto to stop talking_. I was almost to the top… _Kakashi was thinking about how valuable this technique would be to Sasuke and Naruto._ I was at the top. I jumped to the branch Kakashi was on and I swung down to him.

"Hm, so you made it," he commented.

"I'm going to try again…" I said, and I dropped to the ground.

Sasuke and Naruto were both working really hard at this training, and so were Sakura and I. I had it down slow, but I had to work on going fast. It took me a bit to get that down. A couple of hours. Itachi never really taught me control like this. Kakashi was still there watching us. I ran all the way up the tree and dropped down again.

"Kakashi-sensei! Distract me!" I yelled to him.

He was on the ground and he taunted me about my family…abandoning me…everyone, hating me. I made it up the tree.

"Try harder!" I yelled as I dropped down again.

"You're not getting it!" yelled Kakashi. "Amaya! Run faster! You'll never succeed like this! You'll never complete your goals if you continue on like this!"

I got up the tree again, faster than before. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were watching us.

"You three!" Kakashi yelled at them, "Don't get distracted by this! Continue!"

They were all startled, and they ran up again.

"You'll never reach your goals! You're alone in this world! Nobody will ever love you!" Kakashi said. Coming from him, this hurt. Wait…coming from him…what? I used the pain to fuel the chakra.

"Control Amaya! Control! If you can't get this you will never move on! People will step on you, they will use you!"

I still had control…I had control in anger, and I had control in pain…but would I have control if someone I loved was in danger?

I was sweating and a mess at this point. I jumped down from the tree and stopped.

"Thanks…" I whispered. My heart felt like it was breaking. Even if he didn't mean what he said, all the pain of my childhood was rushing back.

"Amaya…" he said softly, and he caught my hand. It felt as if electricity ran through that touch. I immediately snatched my hand away and looked at him.

"I think I have it…" I panted, smiling at him. Inside I was a whirl of emotions. I didn't even know what to feel.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were staring open mouthed at us. I looked at them. "What?" I asked.

Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other and ran up the tree again. Naruto was catching on, he was almost at the same spot as Sasuke.

"Sakura, Amaya, you're done for today. Rest up, tomorrow you will go protect Tazuna-san at the bridge," said Kakashi. We stood up and left. Naruto and Sasuke were still going at it hard.

After Sakura and I stayed on the bridge that day, we walked with Tazuna back home, but on the way we had to stop to get ingredients for their dinner. We walked into a small shop…with barely anything on the shelves. Another man came in and tried to pick-pocket Sakura, and she surprised us all by turning and kicking him in the head.

This poor country…this poor country was filled with poverty, so much poverty that they were relying on this bridge to be built for food, as well as safety. It was heartbreaking.

"Sakura?" I asked.

"Yes Amaya?"

"You like Sasuke, right?" She was caught off guard.

"I see the way you look at him sometimes," I said. "Sakura, what's it like, to be in love?"

I could see the surprise on her face when I asked her this. Then, she softened a little.

"You know exactly what it's like once you feel it." She looked into the sky. "You see something beautiful in every movement, every word. My heart flutters at the sound of his voice, and every touch feels like electricity."

 _Electricity?_ I thought.

Sakura continued, "Once you feel it, it's almost painful. It becomes a longing, a goal you've set your heart on, but it hurts when you're rejected. I think the one thing that makes you realize you're in love is when you finally are aware of the fact that you would do _anything_ , even kill, for the one that you love."

I was silent for a moment. "Thanks, Sakura," I finally said. Then I looked at her, and we smiled at each other.


	4. Chapter 4

That night when we had dinner, Sasuke and Naruto were still being rivals. They ate and ate and ate…and then they threw up…how immature.

After dinner, we sat around the table drinking tea, when Sakura made a comment about a torn picture on the wall. Suddenly there was tension in the room…I could feel it. It was coming from Tazuna, Inari, and his mother. Inari ran out of the room, and his mother followed. When Kakashi asked about this, Tazuna explained.

"Inari had a father not related by blood. They were very close, like a real father and son. Inari would laugh a lot, back then…but…but…Inari has changed…since the incident with his father. The word 'courage' has been stolen from the people of this island, and from Inari, forever…ever since that day, because of that incident.

"It was about three years ago, when Inari first met that man…"

It started out when some boys from the village took Inari's dog, Pochi, and threw him into the sea. The dog couldn't swim, and was drowning. The boy told Inari to go save his dog, but the thing was, Inari couldn't swim. When Inari went into the water, Pochi figured out how to dog paddle at that moment and swam to shore without Inari. The hero of the village, Inari's father, saved him. His name was Kaiza. Kaiza and Inari were inseparable after that, and Kaiza became a part of their family. He also became a strong leader of the village. Then Gatou came to the village, and he had heard of Kaiza. The first thing he did was break Kaiza's two strong arms, and execute him in the middle of the village. This wiped out everyone's hope and courage. I did the math. Inari must have met Kaiza right after I left.

After hearing this story, Naruto stood up and vowed that he would prove that there was such thing as a hero.

I went outside and sat by the pier. So many vows today…Naruto really does have courage. His will is strong, and he's the kind of person that will never give up, no matter what circumstances fight against him. There will always be a way. I shook my head. No, there really couldn't be a way for a demon, could there? I shivered.

"Cold night?" Kakashi's voice came. I turned to find him sitting on the roof behind me.

"I…I…" I stuttered, then I pulled my knees into my chest and put my head down. Suddenly, Kakashi was sitting next to me with his feet dangling over the edge of the pier.

"You're new to the Leaf Village," he said, "So I'm going to tell you this once. The one thing that shinobis of our village have is courage, and the will to protect their teammates, no matter what the cost. Even if it means their lives. For the sake of my squad's safety, I need to know that you have no qualms about fighting Zabuza."

"He's my brother, but even he won't stop me from helping this village," I said.

"But you love him, don't you?"

I looked at him. "You must think I'm a monster, if I could love a beast like him. Let me tell you something. The Hidden Mist Village was a prison my entire life. I was hated by every member of the town, shunned, spit on, kicked, you name it, it happened to me. They feared me and despised me all because of him. So I grew up hating him too. Then, he came, one day, and saved me from my hell, giving me a chance that he knew I wouldn't get otherwise. Somehow, throughout the next few years, before I found the Leaf Village, I forgave him.

"He's putting my friends in danger, Kakashi, and I'll fight him if I have to. He's not my life anymore. You are." I blushed at my blunder. "I mean, you and the rest of them. And this isn't my home anymore. It never was, and it never will be. You can believe that."

He didn't notice my mistake, or at least chose to ignore it.

"You're older than the rest of them, and quite considerably dangerous. I don't know how you trained before you reached our village, but you can be sure that I'm watching you. I'm positive you know what a threat you could be to us."

He paused. "Amaya, I do have one question for you."

"Yeah?"

"You're the only person I've met in all my encounters that can read another person's mind. Is it a blood trait inheritance?"

I looked down into the sea. In the dark, it was the same color as my eyes. "No. I'm a monster. Just like him…Zabuza. The thing inside of me, she's letting me use her chakra. This mind thing? It takes an immense amount of strength, but it's a jutsu I came across somehow before the academy. The only reason I can do it is because of her. To be honest, I almost hate it. It was bad, seeing the insults and hatred on another person's face, but being able to hear their thoughts about me? That's worse." I paused. "It does, however, give me an extreme upper hand in fighting situations!"

I gave Kakashi the biggest smile and thumbs up I could muster. He laughed, then messed up my hair.

"What was that for?!" I exclaimed.

"You remind me of someone I knew once. He always looked on the bright side of things. Come on, let's go inside."

The next few days went by normally, then one day we woke up and Naruto wasn't there. He was probably still in the forest training. Sakura and Sasuke doubted him, but Kakashi knew that he was alright. So did I. I sat next to Kakashi, talking to him in my head.

 _Zabuza should be healed by now. The time is coming,_ Kakashi thought.

 _I know, in the next few days, this should end. We won't lose you, will we, Kakashi?_

 _Do you think you will lose me?_

 _No. But I believe I will lose more than one person soon…_

 _Yes, that may be so, but it won't be one of us._

 _Yes, but, Kakashi, what if I die?_

 _You won't die._ Kakashi's voice in my mind was strong. _You may be related to him, but you are still part of my squad, and I will protect you with my life._

I stood up and walked out. I went for a walk along the beach, thinking to myself. _But what if you, Kakashi, are the one that ends up killing me?_ These thoughts ran through my mind over and over and over again. I stayed outside all day, wandering aimlessly around the village. _I can't even fully control the demon inside of me…how can I protect everyone I care about?_

That night, I bought some things from a local market and ate my own meal on top of the roof. I heard yelling coming from inside. It was Inari and Naruto, in another argument.

Later that night I witnessed a conversation between Inari and Kakashi. I didn't listen; whatever Kakashi had to say was just between him and Inari. Inari got up and walked away, and I went and joined Kakashi. We sat together in silence for a little bit. I gave him privacy in his mind.

"Have you really forgiven him?" Kakashi started.

"He doesn't regret what he did, or who he is, or what he does. But he is my family. And he saved me from my prison. Out of guilt, maybe, but it made me realize that he's not just a blind killer. He has a soft spot…maybe even capable, of loving."

"And you think you're just like him?"

"Circumstance-wise, yes. But I vowed a long time ago that I would not be like him. I promised myself I would find a way. But…I can't help thinking, what if I mess up?"

Kakashi looked at me. "In a shinobis life, any mistake can be fatal. A mistake can turn an entire village against you, and can even turn friends against each other."

"Gee, that makes me feel so much better…" I started to leave.

"Let me finish, Amaya! Though in this life, a mistake can ruin you, you won't ever learn unless you make them. No one, not even me, is perfect. I've made mistakes in my past that I may regret, but because of them, I've become stronger for it. I've also learned that if you're afraid of yourself, you never grow. A life on this earth is precious, and the best way to spend that life is to make the greatest of what you possess."

I paused. "Thanks…Kakashi-sensei. And goodnight."

 _A mistake_. As I thought about Kakashi's words, I realized that up to this point, he's the only one who has made me feel like I'm worth more than just what's inside of me. My mind wandered to Itachi. I hadn't spoken to him since I cut him from my mind. Would he be proud of me? Not even he had made me feel this way. _Feel what way?_ I thought. He hadn't made me feel confused, scared, or helpless, like Kakashi did, but he also hadn't ever made me feel like I had hope.

The next day we got up and went to the bridge to protect Tazuna-san. Naruto slept in because he was still tired from the night before. Go figure. We got to the bridge, and the workers were all dead! Then the mist started flowing in. We put ourselves into a formation around Tazuna.

 _It's finally time,_ I said to Kakashi.

 _Are you ready?_ He asked.

 _More than I think I've ever been before._

Zabuza's clones were around us in a second. Sasuke beat them off in the same amount of time.

Haku and Sasuke got into their own fight. Haku did this secret jutsu: Flying Water Needles, but Sasuke dodged them all. They were a good match for each other. Haku realized he was being driven back, so he used another secret jutsu: Demonic Ice Mirrors.

 _What's that jutsu?_ Kakashi asked in his mind.

 _I don't know…but based on what I know of Haku's skill, Sasuke is in grave danger,_ I replied.

"Damn it!" He yelled, and rushed forward. Zabuza got in the way and said, "You're opponent…is me."

"You'll also have to face me, brother," I said. It was time to reveal the truth.

"Amaya, I should have known. But don't get in the way, or I will kill you, too," Zabuza said. We could hear Sasuke's screams from the background.

"Go help Sasuke!" Kakashi yelled.

I started to go, but Zabuza's Kyōdaina Kubikiri Hōchō, Zanbatō, or long sword, got in the way. He had cut both of us off from getting to Sasuke. Sakura threw a shuriken toward Sasuke, but Haku caught it. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a ninja star shot out and sliced Haku's mask. I quickly extended my mind and found we had quite a surprise…Naruto had joined us. He was about to do his shadow replication jutsu, when Zabuza sent shuriken at him…but Haku saved him by sending his needles flying and intercepting the attack.

I had to help Kakashi…he was in more danger than Sasuke or Naruto, at least at this point. I was about to disappear into the mist, until Haku changed his plan of attack and went after Sasuke for the death. _No!_ I had to help them, but Zabuza was staring me down.

Naruto used his shadow replication jutsu, but it didn't help at all. Kakashi realized that the mirror jutsu was Haku's Kekkei Genkai, or blood trait jutsu, one that could never be copied. No attacks would work, and I was still frozen under my brother's stare.

Then I heard Naruto.

"Damn it…So what…I can't die here, I still have a dream I need to achieve…The dream to make the villagers recognize me and become Hokage!"

Something about what he said made me realize my own dreams, and I realized that my immediate goal was to get my team out of this situation alive…and my longterm goal…

"They can't defeat that boy," I heard Kakashi say. He was getting ready to fight Zabuza, but Zabuza was one step ahead of him, and was about to stab Kakashi's eye. My sensei used his other hand to take the blow. I heard screams coming from where Naruto and Sasuke were.

Zabuza used his mist concealment jutsu. Crap, I thought.

I sensed my brother and attacked him in the mist. He dodged.

"Little sister…now is not the time for fun and games," he said.

"Zabuza, why are you doing this?" I asked him.

"I have no more room for love in my heart, Amaya. I cannot love you."

"Then maybe I'll just have to carry enough love for the both of us."

"No, Amaya," and with that, he took his Zanbatō and sliced me across the stomach. I screamed with the pain. _No!_ I heard Kakashi swear in his mind. I was falling; the force of the strike had knocked me off of the bridge. I barely felt the impact when I hit the water. I sank deep, and everything felt like a dream to me.

 _Amaya…Night Rain…finally dying where she should. In the depths of the sea surrounding her village, her past, her prison._ I felt a slight tingling sensation. _Is this what it is like…to die? But…my dreams, my goals, those that I love…what will happen to them if I am this weak? I'll never be strong, I'll never be anything…I won't ever be able to reach my goals._

I thought about the one who trained me. _Itachi…Itachi…_ Itachi! In the distance, I heard Sakura's scream. I had to help them! My dream! My dream was to see Itachi again, to make him proud of me. My dream was to fight alongside Kakashi-sensei, not as a student, but as an equal. My brother would not stop me from that!

I felt chakra burning through me as I came back to remote consciousness and swam to the surface of the sea. Then I used my chakra and walked up one of the pillars. As I climbed over the edge, Zabuza had just stabbed Kakashi, but I wouldn't let him kill my sensei! I jumped down with a kunai and attacked him, but he caught me just in time. He took his sword and sliced towards my neck, making contact.

Unfortunately for him, it was a water clone.

"You can't beat me Amaya!"

I formed a vortex with the air around me, creating the equivalent of a small hurricane with all of the mist. It encircled him. I threw my shuriken and kunai into the swirls and pulled the tornados in tighter. As it closed around him, I heard laughing behind me. He had used a water clone as well.

I dropped to the ground and Zabuza's sword just missed the top of my head. I did a sweep kick at his legs but he jumped to avoid. As he swung his sword downward, I did a back bend and flip to get out of the way. As I stretched my body backwards, however, I fell down because the gaping cut in my stomach from Zabuza's blow before was stretching open and hurt like hell. His sword was almost upon me, but I quickly swept my legs out of the way and jumped off of my hands, landing on the top length of his sword as it smashed into the ground.

I crouched on it and spoke to him.

"Zabuza! You must stop this madness!"

"I can't! You know this fully well!" He replied.

"Yes, but I know there is some good left…" I said softly.

"You can't bring me back," he said.

"I can try!" I yelled at him.

Then we both felt something utterly disgusting. It was chakra…from…Naruto. Had the seal…? The nine tailed fox! What was happening?! Then, after a little bit…it suddenly disappeared. Something else... I jumped off the sword as dogs broke through from underneath the bridge and trapped Zabuza where he stood. It was Kakashi and his dog summoning jutsu.

I stepped aside for Kakashi.

"Zabuza…" I whispered. I heard nothing of what Kakashi said to him.

"I'll show you my original technique, it's not a copy," I heard Kakashi say at last.

"No…" I said. No one heard me.

"Lightning Edge!" Kakashi yelled.

"Kakashi!" I yelled.

"You're too dangerous. The person you are trying to kill, Tazuna-san, is this country's courage. The bridge he is trying to create is this country's hope. Your ambition sacrifices too many people. This is not what a ninja is supposed to do," Kakashi told Zabuza.

"Who cares? I have fought for my ideal. And that won't change in the future, either," retorted Zabuza.

Kakashi went in for the kill. It all seemed to happen in slow motion then.

My body was paralyzed. I couldn't move, I couldn't scream, I couldn't do anything. I didn't flinch, and I suddenly weighed the two sides of the scale in my mind. Zabuza was my brother…but only by blood. My real family was fighting with me: the three young ones Kakashi vowed to protect, and Kakashi himself. It had to happen this way.

Suddenly, I was free again. Haku had jumped in front of Zabuza. Even in his dying moments, he felt the need to use his life for someone else. I thought about Sakura's words from the previous days. Haku…loved my brother.

Then Zabuza surprised me again…this time for the worse.

"Splendid, Haku," he said. Haku didn't hear him, he was already dead. My brother went back in for the attack. Haku, in his last moments, had caught Kakashi in his hand and would not let go. Kakashi was going to die! I jumped in front of Kakashi and Haku and stopped my brother from letting his sword swing. The pain bit into my arm; I could feel the blade go straight to the bone, but it gave Kakashi a way to escape with Haku still in his arms.

"How dare you…" I whispered to Zabuza, anger lacing my words. "How dare you…"

"This is my battle too…" I heard Kakashi say behind me. Together we attacked him. I had tears in my eyes, but I would not give up.

 _A ninja must not show any emotion in any situation. A ninja must put the mission first and must have a heart that will allow her not to cry, not to show weakness, and not to make a mistake,_ I thought.

 _A ninja's body gives her strength and power during battle, a ninja's mind keeps her flexible and ready, but a ninja's heart…a ninja's heart gives her endurance to hold on in the end, even when there is little chance of hope…and even if that means crying…a shinobi's heart is what allows her to cope._ These were Kakashi's words in response.

I used my tears to fuel my power, my strength, and Zabuza was not ready for the both of us. It felt so good to be fighting along-side Kakashi. And then, it was over. My brother didn't have the strength to go on. Besides, Gatou had shown up…and he had shown up with all of his other assassins behind him.

Gatou went up and kicked Haku, though he was already dead. Naruto couldn't stand it, and told Zabuza off for not doing anything about it. Naruto's words went straight to his heart. My brother went through the crowd of ninja and killed Gatou in the end, before collapsing himself…and finally, the brother that I remember leaving had returned to me. He may have been unconscious, or dead even, but in the end, he finally showed what I knew was inside of him: compassion.

I turned around. Sasuke had survived it too. I let out a sigh. Haku hadn't killed him after all. Sakura was with him now.

But then, everything took a turn. The assassins that Gatou had hired were now uncontrollable. They wanted their money and their pay, but Gatou was dead, so they decided to raid the town. Fortunately, the villagers showed up and were ready to tell everyone that the Village Hidden in the Mist now had a hope, and they weren't ready to give it up. Naruto, Kakashi, and I decided to help too. Naruto and Kakashi used their Shadow Replication jutsu, and I used my water clone jutsu. That sent the rest of the assassins running.

As everyone was celebrating, Kakashi sensei and I walked over to Zabuza. He was still alive.

"Amaya…I'm sorry. I'm sorry I could never be a brother to you, not even in the end," he said.

"Zabuza, you're more of a brother to me today than you ever were in the past. I'm glad I got to see you one last time. I forgive you, older brother," I whispered to him.

"Kakashi, I have one favor to ask. I…I want to see his face," Zabuza went on to say.

"Sure," Kakashi replied as he covered his sharingan. At that moment, it started to snow. I lifted my head to the sky, letting the purity of the moment soak through my body.

I never knew what Zabuza's last words were. They were between him and Haku, a true brotherhood that he and I would never share.

My body was so tired out that I didn't have the will to stand anymore. I fell into a sitting position, holding the gash in my stomach. As I looked toward Sakura and Naruto, I saw Sasuke standing up. I smiled at the sight of their friendship, then took a bandage out of my medical pack and started wrapping my arm where Zabuza's sword had broken the skin. I winced with the pain.

"Here, let me do that," Kakashi said. He kneeled by my side, taking the bandage and wrapping my arm gently. When he finished, he looked at my other wounds.

"I don't understand how you're still alive…or even conscious right now," he said.

"The perks of housing a demon, right?" I asked him, forcing a smile. I tried to stand, but my wounds were too painful, and I ended up falling again.

"Ahh!" I flinched at the sting that jolted through my body. What hurt even worse was the agony I felt looking at my dead brother and his apprentice lying bloody on the ground.

Without a word, Kakashi picked me up tenderly in his arms. As I leaned my head against his chest, I whispered, "I want to give them a proper funeral."

He looked at me and nodded his head, and then I faded out of consciousness.


	5. Chapter 5

_"Will she be alright?"_

 _"Her breathing and her heartbeat have calmed, and the blood loss has stopped."_

 _"If I know anything about Amaya, it's that she'll last!"_

 _"She's in a worse state than Sasuke was."_

 _"I can't believe she was able to fight with as much blood as she lost."_

 _"Wait…she's moving. She's saying something!"_

 _"Kakashi-sensei…she just spoke your name."_

The first thing I felt was sunlight streaming on my face. Something delicious wafted through the room, and I took a deep breath in. The next thing I felt was that someone was holding my hand. That feeling…I'd felt it before. I finally opened my eyes and was greeted by the sight of Kakashi asleep in a chair by the bed I was in. His fingers were intertwined with mine. My fingers tingled with pleasure where they met his. I sighed and closed my eyes again. I must be dreaming.

I opened my eyes and looked at the ceiling. It was nighttime. I sat up, wincing as I moved my abdomen. Naruto opened the door and peeked in.

"Amaya! You're awake!" he said. I laughed. Sakura inched into the room slowly and gave me a big smile. After her came Sasuke, bandaged, but as indifferent as always. I smiled at him. Then, Kakashi put his head into the room.

"How are you feeling?" he asked. I thought about it.

"Hungry," I replied, "But great. I had the best dream."

"What was it about?" Naruto asked.

I looked down, embarrassed, but I smiled. I looked at all of their faces. "It was about you guys," I said.

All the events from the week came rushing back to me, and my face fell.

"How long was I unconscious?" I asked.

"Four days," Kakashi replied.

"We haven't…paid our respects yet…have we?"

"No. The bodies are being taken care of as we speak. We'll have a small ceremony in a few days."

"Was he really your brother?" asked Sasuke skeptically.

"Is it that hard to believe?" I asked in reply. "Yeah. He was, is, will always be, my brother. But you guys…you will always be my family."

I continued recovering throughout the week, and later we had a funeral for Zabuza and Haku. After my team had left, I knelt in front of their graves and shed tears freely. Then I walked back to the village, ready to continue my journey to be able to become a true ninja: proud of herself, confident of who she is, and not afraid to give her life for something she cares about.

As we left for Konoha, I heard the villagers talking about a name to name the completed bridge. They called it the Great Naruto Bridge. I think it's perfect.

Once we arrived in Konoha I said good-bye to my team and went to my apartment room. I sat on my bed and decided it was time I re-attached my mind to Itachi's. I held my head for a moment, because a sharp pain cut through my mind. In a split second, everything Itachi had done since I disconnected myself from him replayed in my mind. I knew that my memories were flashing through his head at the same speed. After the pain subsided, Itachi blew up at me.

 _Why the HELL did you ever try to cut me off from your mind!? This was one of your more important missions, Amaya, and I thought you were dead! In fact, you almost did die! What's the matter with you!_

 _Are you kidding me Itachi!?_ I yelled back at him. _Do you think I knew that this was going to happen? It's not like you taught me the do's and don'ts of mind reading. It was more like 'here, Amaya, a cool new jutsu. If you read memories, it will kill you, but you're going to have to experiment in every other aspect.' What was I supposed to do?_

 _You were supposed to trust me._ His tone was in between anger and disappointment.

 _…I do trust you, Itachi. But I don't think you trust me._

I was met with silence.

 _Itachi?_ I asked hesitantly.

 _Yes?_ he replied in a discontent tone.

 _What happens…if one of us really does die?_

 _I really don't know. I came across this jutsu through some ancient writings I found, but nothing like this has ever happened before. There's nothing about bonds such as ours. Look, you've been through a lot in the past month or so. Get some sleep, please._

I did as he said.

I woke up the next day refreshed and ready to go. Kakashi met us at the bridge for more training and another mission, and he was late, as usual.

We had another "D" mission today…weeding gardens, cleaning trash, walking dogs, and the like. By the end of the day, Sasuke and Naruto were about to face it off in the streets. It almost got to be too bad.

"Come on you guys," I said. I had to break it up some how. "No one is going to get anywhere if they fight against their own team members. Today's not the day for this. Maybe tomorrow," I said jokingly, "but Naruto, you're going to collapse, especially if you keep it up like you are. You might try actual TRAINING once in a while."

Kakashi abruptly ended our mission for the day, and we left.

Before we got too far, however, we saw Konohamaru and his friends. Naruto and Sakura got in a fight, so Sakura was chasing them until Konohamaru ran into this guy who picked him up by the collar of his shirt.

The guy was with another girl, and I read their minds. They were from the Village hidden in the Sand.

"Put him down, Kankuro," I said. My use of his name surprised him, but he didn't put Konohamaru down.

"Hmph. I'm sorry miss, but this little punk really is annoying," he said. Why the formality? As I read his mind, I realized that he thought I was Naruto and Sakura's sensei.

 _Who is she? She's kind of gorgeous,_ came the thought issuing out of his head. His face, however, stayed stoic. I blushed. He's the first person I had met who thought that I was outright _gorgeous._

"What's your name? You look a little young to be a sensei," the girl said. Her name was Temari.

Naruto looked at me before bursting into laughter. "She's not our sensei! She's our teammate!"

The girl scoffed at me. "In that case, you're a little _old_ to be a Genin, don't you think?"

"You have no idea who you're up against," I said to her.

At that moment, Sasuke threw a rock at Kankuro's wrist, hitting a pressure point and forcing him to drop Konohamaru.

"What do you think you're doing in another's village?" Sasuke asked them, completely ignoring me. They didn't answer, so I answered for them.

"They're here for the Chuunin exam," I said.

"Get lost," he said, while crushing a rock in his hand.

Kankuro then made some comment and unwrapped a giant thing on his back.

"Hey! You're going to use Karesu?" Temari shouted. I could tell this was going too far, too fast.

"Kankuro, stop." A voice came from the trees near Sasuke. "You're a disgrace to our village."

"G-gaara," Kankuro stuttered. So his name is Gaara. It seemed like Kankuro and Temari were afraid of Gaara. Even Sasuke noticed…his eyes…were different.

As they were walking away, Sakura remembered something.

"Judging from your head protectors, you guys are ninjas from the Hidden Sand village, right? The Fire Country and the Wind Country may be allies, but it's forbidden for shinobi to enter each other's villages without permission. State your purpose! Depending on…" started Sakura.

"Talk about living under a rock!" Temari said. "Don't you know anything? That girl over there seems to be the only one that knows," she continued, motioning towards me. "Here's my passport. You're right. We're Genin of the Hidden Sand from the Wind Country. We've come to your village to take the Chuunin Selection Exam."

"What's this Chuunin Selection Exam?" asked Naruto.

"That's it, I'm surrounded by imbeciles. I'm outa here," I said, and left. Gaara and Sasuke exchanged names, but no one asked for mine. _Oh, they'll know me in time. They will._

Kakashi called us out to the bridge later for training. He was late again, as usual.

"Sorry, today I got lost on the Road of Life," he said. I started laughing. "Well, alright. This is sudden, but I've nominated you guys for the Chuunin Selection Exam. Here are the applications. He told us what to do with them, and we left.

Later that day, I was in a shop buying food for dinner, when suddenly I heard screaming. I ran outside and found that this ninja from another village had stolen something from a shop next door! Geez! If other ninja are here, they should at least respect the village!

I chased him down and attacked him. He used a replication jutsu, but my mind searched out the real one and I went straight for him. Then he threw some kunai at me, but I caught them and got a punch right in his face. He doubled over and coughed blood, but then he came for more. I was getting angry, and my anger fueled my demon's fire. I started spinning and created a fireball that I launched at him. He tried to evade the attack but I turned and hit him from the side, kicking him into the ground. And that was the end of that.

He was a ninja from the Sound Village, based on his head protector. I would have to report him to the Hokage. Meanwhile, however, I got the goods and returned them to the lady at the shop. She let me keep some fresh fruits and vegetables too. Oh, the perks of being a good citizen.

As I was climbing the staircase to speak with the Hokage, I saw Iruka come down the stairs in a huff.

"Iruka-sensei!" I called to him, "What's wrong?"

He paused for a second, choosing his words carefully.

"I'm just…worried…about the Leaf Genin who are going to be taking the Chuunin Exam," he said.

I scanned his mind. He didn't think some of us were ready…okay, he didn't think all of us were ready. He was especially concerned about Naruto.

"Iruka-sensei, I know you must think that we are still too inexperienced to go through this exam. I want you to know, however, that I've watched all of them grow since we graduated the Academy. Our senseis are extremely qualified, and they know our individual strengths and weaknesses like the back of their hand. If they didn't think we were ready, they most definitely wouldn't nominate us. Look. I know you and Naruto are extremely close, but he has grown in skill and also a little in maturity. We all have a lot of learning to do, of course, but how can we be great shinobi if we aren't challenged?"

He looked at me for a second and smiled.

"I have faith in all of the Genin," I said before he could speak, "After all, you were the one that taught us in the first place, right?"

He laughed at that. "Thank you Amaya. Honestly, that makes me feel a little bit better. Good luck during the exam."

I smiled, then continued my way up the stairs.

I knocked on the Hokage's door.

"Please enter," I heard the familiar voice say. I walked in and saw the Hokage speaking with Kakashi.

"I'm sorry sir," I said, realizing they were in a serious conversation, "I can come back later."

"No need Amaya, we were just finishing our conversation."

Kakashi turned around to leave, but not before asking me in his mind, _What matter do you have to bring to the Hokage?_

 _Oh, the usual_ , I replied, _tyrants tearing up out village, crazy suspicions, that sort of thing. Do you have time to wait for me?_

 _Sure._ He went through the door and closed it behind him.

"Sir, I just wanted to report an incident I had with one of the visiting Sound Village ninja."

The Hokage smiled a bit. "Go on," he said.

I proceeded to tell him my story. "I know they're here for the Chuunin Exam, but I don't trust anyone who disrespects someone else's village like this boy did."

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'll make sure the Sound Jounins know about this." He paused. "Amaya, please have a seat."

I sat down in the chair in front of his desk.

"I was recently told that you fought your own brother in a recent mission. Is this true?"

"Yes, sir, it is."

"Your brother was Momochi Zabuza, one of the Mist's Seven Swordsmen. Your sensei told me that you handled yourself valiantly while fighting him, and even held your own in battle. This is impressive."

"Thank you." I smiled hesitantly. I wasn't used to praise.

"I'm telling you this because of the upcoming Chuunin Exam. You are on Hatake Kakashi's team with four members, and for the second part of the Exam, this will cause an unbalanced power among the rest of the teams. You see, everyone else is on a team of three."

"I understand, but what exactly does this mean for me?"

"We don't want to disqualify you from taking the exam, of course. Based on what your sensei has told me about you, however, you could take the second section of the exam by yourself. You seem to have the experience to handle yourself alone in fighting situations, and it would solve the problem of unfairness that the other teams would see. You don't need to give me an answer right away, but this would be the easiest way to fix the problem. Think about it, and I will talk to you before the first part of the Chuunin Exam."

"Yes, sir, I'll think about it. Thank you." I got up and left.

"You took longer than I expected," Kakashi said when he saw me come through the door. We started walking down the steps together.

"Yeah. Hey, how hard is the Chuunin Exam?" I asked him.

"It depends from year to year. They will do tests to separate the weak from the strong, but I don't think you'll have to worry. Our team is strong."

"What if I'm not taking it with the team?"

He paused. "I see. Is that what the Hokage was speaking to you about?"

"Yes."

"I still don't think you'll have to worry. You're more powerful than I was when I first took the exam."

"Yeah, and you were what, six years old? How am I supposed to compare to that?"

Kakashi laughed and tousled my hair.

"Why do you always do that!?" I asked him.

He leaned down so he was eye level with me. "Because I know you hate it. I gotta go Amaya, train hard, I'll see you tomorrow!"

And with that, he disappeared.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day, at four in the afternoon, I was supposed to meet my team in front of the academy classrooms to turn in our applications.

Unfortunately, I was late.

 _Amaya._

 _Itachi?_

 _Have you decided what you're going to do for the Chuunin exam?_

 _I'm going to do as the Hokage recommends, and take it alone._

 _Ha, exactly what I'd expected. You better not die. I'm betting against Hoshigaki that you'll surpass everyone's expectations._

 _Wait…you bet on me!? Itachi!_

 _He doesn't think you'll be able to make it through alive._

 _You kidding me? He should know better. You're the one that trained me, after all._

 _Yeah, but he thinks you've gotten soft since you started in with Kakashi._

 _If anything, what he's taught me has supplemented everything I knew before._

 _You mean that 'electricity?'_

I blushed. _No. I mean that I'm finally figuring out my purpose…and who I am…_ I was stumbling for the right words now.

 _Don't give me your so-called 'ideals' Amaya. Use this exam to test yourself and how far you've come. When you're done analyzing yourself, come and find me._

Itachi's voice was gone.

It had been so long since I had spoken with him that I had to pause a moment. He sounded…different…when he spoke about what I felt when I touched Kakashi. He sounded almost…jealous. No. That couldn't be right. How could he be jealous when he and I weren't even friends?

"Hey! You gonna close up the restaurant soon? It's almost four!"

I looked to my left to see a couple shopkeepers looking at a clock. _Crap!_ I had lost track of time, and now I was late for the exam.

I started to run towards the classroom where we were supposed to turn in our applications. I was going to be so late. They were going to kill me!

I ran into the building and up the stairs so fast that I didn't see Kakashi standing in front of the doors. I smashed right into him.

"Woah! Where do you think you're going. You're late."

"I missed it, didn't I…" Well, it looks like Hoshigaki was going to win that bet anyway. "Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke are in there, right?" I asked.

"They are. You better come with me."

 _Damn it._ How could I have missed the exam?!

Kakashi was laughing at me in his head, but his thoughts were unreadable. How could he laugh in a situation like this? I was NOT about to remain a Genin for another six months.

He led me into a room where the Hokage and a bunch of other Jounins were sitting. I read their minds. They were the proctors of the exam.

"Hokage-sama, here is Amaya," Kakashi said.

"Sir," I said, bowing. _Wait…so I'm not too late to take the exam?_

"This is the girl on the team of four that wishes to take the exam. However, that is the problem…the team of four," said the Hokage. Then he turned to me and asked, "Amaya, have you made your decision?"

Relief flooded through me like a wave. I had almost forgotten about this entire situation.

The proctors all looked at me.

"Yes. I am prepared to take the exam alone."

"That is out of the question. By herself?! It's way to dangerous out there, even for teams…it's almost positive that she'll die!" someone said.

"The exam requires teamwork. It's impossible for her to take it alone," a woman said.

"Amaya has show impressive teamwork on all of our missions. That is one thing she doesn't lack," Kakashi said.

The Hokage sighed deeply. "Amaya, please leave the room, we need to sort this out."

"Yes, sir," I replied, and I left the room to sit in the hall. A few minutes later, all the Jounins filed out of the room. Kakashi came out and told me that I would definitely be taking the exam, and the second part I would be taking alone. The rest would fall in place from there.

"Are you absolutely sure?" he asked.

"You haven't seen everything, Kakashi-sensei. I still have a lot of surprises waiting up my sleeve."

"Alright. Let's get you to the exam room."

At the door to the room, we paused. I turned and looked up at my sensei.

"Thank you, Kakashi," Then, with a smile on my face and an assuring thumbs up for him, I walked into the room.

Everyone turned and looked at me. I guess that's what I get for being late. Still, the proctor had yet to come into the room.

"Amaya, you made it!" Naruto said.

"You're late," Sasuke said.

"Just taking after our favorite sensei," I replied with a smirk on my face.

"Kakashi-sensei said that this exam could only be taken in groups of three. Where does that leave all of us?" Sakura asked.

"Don't worry about it," I said, "It's all been taken care of."

I then noticed what everyone was doing. All the rookies were in a group huddled around a white haired boy. I searched his thoughts. His name was Kabuto.

Kabuto stood up.

"And who is this beauty that my eyes have the honor of viewing?" he asked.

"You won't get very far with flattery, _Yakushi Kabuto_ ," I said, putting emphasis on his name.

"So, you've heard of me, _Momochi Amaya_ ," He said, using the same emphasis. The other nine were staring at us.

"You two know each other?" Shikamaru asked.

I shook my head at him. "First time I've seen him in my life," I answered.

"Same here," Kabuto voiced. "I was just showing your friends some information I got on a couple Genin who might interest you as well."

"Gaara of the desert…and Rock Lee of Konoha, correct?"

Kabuto looked at me suspiciously. "Yes," he said.

"What information do you have on me?" I asked.

"Let's find out," he said, and quickly found a card from his pile.

"Momochi Amaya, 7 D-rank missions, 1 C-rank missions, 0 B-ranked missions, 0 A-ranked missions…and seventeen years old…" he trailed off. He sighed loudly. "You're kind of old, to be a rookie."

"Hey, can I see that card?" Kiba asked.

"Sure, why?" Kabuto responded.

"Because honestly, we know nothing about the Elder. She graduated the Academy with us, but no one really knows her abilities. She hasn't really done much worthy of attention," Ino added.

I looked at her, surprised. _Wow. I can see why Sakura doesn't like her_.

"Her card has no information about chakra and whatnot," Chouji said.

"I don't have too much information on her," Kabuto responded. "I do have one question though. Are you by any chance related to Momochi Zabuza, the famous swordsman?"

All the Genin looked at me with interest now. I had no idea they were so curious about me.

"He was my brother," I said.

"Was?" asked Hinata, shyly.

"He's deceased." I looked away.

"Yeah! She killed him in battle!" Naruto exclaimed. Sakura punched him in the face. I silently thanked her.

"Hmph, that's hard to believe. You _killed_ one of the Mist's Seven Swordsmen?" Kabuto asked.

 _Who_ is _this girl?_ I heard Shikamaru in his mind.

"I didn't technically kill him. But he died after we met him in battle."

"Well then. I'm excited to see your abilities, Momochi," Kabuto said.

Then something happened behind me. Naruto let out a storm and cried out, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I'm not going to lose to any of you! Got that?!"

I closed my eyes for a moment and sensed something was wrong. I turned around and caught someone by the back of their clothes. It was the girl from the Sound village. The other two had gone for Kabuto. He dodged one of the punches, but then his glasses broke.

"What's going on? You definitely dodged it? Why did your glass…" Sasuke started.

"It must have hit his nose. That's what happens for trying to look cool," Shikamaru scoffed.

"No…" I said, still holding onto the girl. I had her arms and kept her from fighting back. "Something…is different." Then Kabuto collapsed, threw up, and started bleeding from the ear. I let go of the girl and she quickly went to stand by her team, in front of Kabuto. Sakura and Naruto went to help Kabuto.

"Write this in your card…the three from the Hidden Village of Sound will definitely become Chuunin," one of them said.

"Quiet down, you punks!" Someone shouted. It was the proctor of this exam, with other sub-proctors behind him. "Sorry to keep you waiting," he said. "I am the examiner of the 1st test of the Chuunin exam, Morino Ibiki." I remembered him from the meeting with the Hokage. "You three from the Hidden Village of Sound! Don't think you can do anything you want before the exam. Do you want us to fail you already?"

"I'm sorry, I was excited, since this is my first exam," one of them said.

"This is a good chance to say this…" the examiner continued, "You are not allowed to fight each other unless given permission by the examiners. Even if the permission is given, you are not allowed to kill each other. Pigs who go against me will fail immediately. Understood? We will now begin the first exam of the Chuunin Selection exam. Turn in your applications, take one of these number tags, and sit where the number tells you to. Then we will pass out the papers for the written exam."

I was number 64. All of the other rookies were separated from one another. I wonder how hard the test would be. The Morino Ibiki explained the rules.

Each person had 10 points to start, and they were deducted as we went. We were also scored as a team, and if one member received zero points, then the team failed. If a person was caught cheating, then 2 points would be deducted. If that person was caught five times, then the entire team failed. Since our group had four people, we had to achieve more points.

"You're all trying to become Chuunins. If you are ninja, act like a first rate one! You have one hour for the exam. Begin!"

 _Crap, Naruto, don't fail us now!_ I heard in both Sasuke's and Sakura's heads. I had faith in him though…he had to be fine. The thing I was trying to figure out…why would they make such a big deal about cheating? It's like…they wanted us to cheat. I turned over the test and saw the questions. Not many people could figure out these questions! No one…besides Sakura, and probably a few others. I started on the first problem, and I got stuck halfway through. The second one was easy…and the fifth one, but that was all I could figure out. I looked up.

The rules…if they didn't want us to cheat off each other, why didn't they make a few different versions of the test and just hand them out? Then they wouldn't need so many examiners watching…closely…THAT WAS IT! They did want us to cheat…to cheat and not get caught! That was the point of the test! Information gathering. This was almost too easy for me. I opened my mind and searched everyone around me. I listened to Sakura's mind…I knew she had all the answers. Twenty-five minutes into the test I finished and flipped my test over. Only thing to do now is wait.

I searched around the room with my mind and found out what everyone else was doing. Most people got the idea, some were just bad at it. Gaara…he made a third eye…Kankuro…he had his puppet pretending as one of the examiners…Sakura knew all the answers…Sasuke, he used his Sharingan to copy movements of the pencil. Kiba…was using Akamaru, Shino was using his bugs, and somehow Tenten had gotten mirrors up on the ceiling and was helping Rock Lee as well.

"What is the meaning of this?!" A boy near Naruto stood up and said.

"You screwed up five times, you fail," one of the examiners said. Others were failing right and left as well. I checked on Naruto. He had no idea…but if I spoke to him in my mind he would be totally freaked out and probably do something rash.

"Okay," the examiner said. "I will now give the 10th problem!" I looked up. It was time. All or nothing!

So, we had to choose if we were going to take the 10th question or not. If we chose not to, our whole team failed. If we chose to and we got it wrong, we would never be able to take the exam again…heck, I'm up for it. No matter what rank I am, I'll always try to get stronger, so it shouldn't matter, right? Still…so many people raised their hands…but in the end, all the rookies prevailed. None of us raised our hands, and the last question was a surprise for all of us.

"Nice determination. For the first exam, everyone here…Passes!" Ibiki said. I finally got it…I had forbidden myself to read his mind. I started laughing out loud! Everyone else was confused. Was I the only one that realized what had happened? Everyone else stared at me. I wiped a tear from my eye and looked at Morino Ibiki.

"So this…this was the great interrogation, wasn't it?" I whispered under my breath. One of the examiners on the sides heard me and snickered as well. I looked at him and flashed a smile. I couldn't wait for the rest of the exam to come. This was more fun than I'd thought it would be.

Everything before this, it had just been a ruse. He had used words to scare us into not having courage and determination. And all the people that walked out, they fell for it.


	7. Chapter 7

As everyone else took in what had happened, the second examiner, Mitarashi Anko, made her appearance.

We followed her to the 44th training area, also known as the forest of death. She explained the rules.

Apparently, I was still going to be on my own. We had to sign consent forms, because from there on, people could die. The explanation of the exam goes something like this: there are two types of scrolls, a heaven scroll, and an earth scroll. There were twenty-six teams that passed the first exam, and thirteen scrolls of each heaven and earth would be split up between them. Teams have to fight over the scrolls, because to finish, a team needs to have one of each. We couldn't look at the scrolls either, until the end.

"Now, Momochi Amaya…where is she?" the examiner asked. I raised my hand, and she grinned at me. "Because there is a team of four, Momochi Amaya has volunteered herself to go into the forest alone so things would be fair. She will get one scroll, and the other will be hidden somewhere in the forest, game for all teams to get."

"Amaya? What's this all about?" Naruto asked.

"You remember why I was late? Well, since I'm not really needed by you guys, you know, the whole three to a team thing, I volunteered to go into the forest alone. If I fail…uh…or die…you guys can still progress, but I swear to you, I'll see you when this is all over."

"Alone?! You must be joking!" Shikamaru said.

 _How interesting,_ Anko thought. _She doesn't seem scared at all_.

"Hey Elder, are you even strong enough to last?" Ino asked me. _Maybe Sasuke will tell me some of her weaknesses!_ She thought dreamily. Dang. Not even Sakura obsessed this much…at least she actually loved him.

"Why, Ino, some people have more important things to do than chase after an Uchiha. Like, maybe train, for example?"

 _Chase an Uchiha…does that include me?_ Itachi asked me.

I smiled to myself. Ino was infuriating, but Itachi still knew how to make me smile.

"What if she decides to work with her team in the forest?" someone in the crowd called out.

"Let's go with this. If any of you find her with her team, and they are working together, and you can bring me absolute proof of this, then yes, I will disqualify her and her team. But remember, she'll be starting at the opposite side of the forest from them. I'll make sure of this. And since she is alone, she is an 'easy' target. Fair enough?" the proctor said.

There was grumbling amongst some other teams too, but this was fair. It was more than fair. Many of them decided they would kill me, but whatever. This would be fun.

Once the scrolls were passed to us, the fun began. I received an earth scroll.

In the first five minutes I was attacked. Three against one wasn't quite fair, but I had sensed them and laid out a trap. Two were caught, the third was mine. I got him with a kunai in the arm, but he kept on attacking. He was faster than me too. Damn. I used chakra to boost power into my legs and feet, making me faster than ever. We were both standing on the ground, and I started launching boulders at him. He dodged them and came at me with a speed I wasn't expecting. As he tried to punch, I created some fire in the palm of my hand and grabbed his arm, moving it out of the way. I saw the surprise in his eyes as he felt the burn. As I moved him toward the side, I brought my leg up and around and wheel kicked him into the ground. He was down. As I went through his possessions, I found another earth scroll. I dropped it by his side, and then turned to the other two from his squad, who were still stuck in my trap.

"Don't underestimate me. I'm not an 'easy' target. Just be glad you were the first to find out. See ya!" I left them where they were.

 _That was way too easy,_ Itachi said.

 _I know. Is this really the level of those who will become Chuunin?_

 _No. You'll face the best of the best in the next section._

 _Good. I'm waiting to 'test my ability,' as you call it._

He laughed at me, and I smiled.

From then on I kept my mind open, sensing when people came near. No one was around me, so I decided to figure out a plan. To survive for five days, first I should find the river and stay near it. That was my source of water, and I'm sure I'd find other ninja near there too. I could fish, and wild animals needed the source of water as well. So first course of action, find the river. Second course of action, find a ninja with a heaven scroll, or look for the one hidden in the forest. I'd probably be better off finding a team.

It took me a while to get to the river. I was attacked by another team, but they didn't have what I wanted so I handled them quickly. When I finally reached the river, it was dusk. My mind was still open, and there was a team nearby. I read their minds—earth scroll. Did all the teams that started on this side have earth scrolls? Why bother? I drank some water, and then headed down the river. I was kind of hungry too. I found a secluded spot in the forest near the river and then went fishing. I used chakra to catch the fish, and then I roasted them over fire. I forgot how good fresh fish really tasted.

After that I decided I better sleep a bit. I created an underground cave for myself, secluded, and then created a genjutsu to make it seem like it didn't exist. I slept soundly that night.

In the morning of the second day, I was awakened by a crunching sound nearby. I quickly sensed some ninja, but they did not know that I was hidden. _Yes, they have a heaven scroll,_ I thought. This should be fun. They were examining the fire pit I had made the night before.

 _Damn it,_ I thought, _I forgot about that. Oh well, all the better for me._ I decided to play with them first. As one of they boys on the team examined the ashes, I sent a small gust of wind towards it. The ashes flew in his eyes and he staggered backwards. The female on the team was on her guard after that. Unfortunately, the third teammate was oblivious, looking oddly at the genjutsu I had created. _At least he noticed it._

I made a small snake of water from the river and moved it along the ground towards him. Then, I made it wrap around his ankle and started dragging him back to the river. He used a kunai to cut the flow of water. By this time, the one I threw ashes at was standing defensively by the girl. The third took his place with them.

"Who's there!" the girl cried. Her name was Reiko.

I dispersed the genjutsu and stepped out to face them.

"You have what I want, the heaven scroll. If you give it to me now, you won't get hurt."

"No way! We can take you out!" one of the boys said. Jiro, was his name.

"I dare you to try!" I responded.

I created a rock wall in front of me quickly, moving earth to my advantage. As the three jumped to counter it, I created three water clones and moved silently to the top of a tree so I could watch and control.

When the walls came tumbling down, each of them had a single opponent.

The three ninja were from the Hidden Sand Village.

I read each of their minds and countered their individual jutsus.

"Impressive," said Jiro. He was starting to sweat.

I took out the other boy first. His name was Teiji. His specialty was traps. He laid out thin wires along the ground, but I moved the earth to enclose them, making them unusable.

 _Crap._ I heard him think. Then, my water clone punched him square in the face. He was knocked out.

Jiro was next. He used a summoning jutsu and summoned a load of wasps. These wasps sucked chakra, leaving the opponent done for. As they attacked my clone, I surrounded the area with fire, burning them up as they went along. Unfortunately, it also sucked the water dry from my clone, and it disappeared.

I jumped down from where I was, and swirled the air around me into a vortex of fire. The wasps were sucked inside and Jiro was caught in the crossfire. He was down.

Now, for the finale. Reiko. She was still fighting my water clone, but she stabbed it with a kunai. It disappeared, and she was left facing me.

"Reiko, you don't stand a chance. I took out your teammates with a couple of clones!"

"You're a freak! You're going to die here!"

Inside, she was scared stiff, but she was also a formidable opponent. I closed my hands into fists and created small blades of fire. As I jumped at her, she created clones herself, but I took them out instantly. I searched her out and shot kunai at her, pinning her to a tree. Then I created a giant windmill shuriken out of fire. I threw it full force at her, and she screamed. Right before it hit her, however, I dispersed the flame. She was left with a few singed hairs.

"Take it!" she cried, tears streaming down her face. "Just take the scroll! It's in Teiji's pack!"

I found it and disappeared into the forest.

"Stop right there!" _Damn_. I cursed. I needed to rest and replenish some chakra.

"We know you have both scrolls, now hand them over!"

"You kidding me?" I said. "Do you want to end up like those three back there? Because I can definitely make that happen if you want me to." I read their minds.

"Oh…I get it. You just lost your scroll, and you think I'll be an easy way to pass. Well, let me tell you something. I am _not_ easy."

 _Nice speech,_ Itachi said jokingly. _Hoshigaki's laughing at you._

 _Now is NOT the time, Itachi!_

I smothered the entire place with mist and took out one of the ninja with a senbon needle. It knocked him out instantly. The other two smelled me out. One ended up behind me, but I turned and back knuckled him across the temple, hard. Instant knock out, at least for a few seconds.

 _Little intense, don't you think Amaya?_

 _Itachi! Not helping!_

A shuriken flew by me and cut my cheek. I turned swiftly to meet the third guy in hand-to-hand combat. I put one hand on his arm to keep it from attacking me and the other one around his neck. Then I made him burn. He screamed.

"I told you not to mess with me! I'm seriously getting angry!" I told him as I dropped him to the ground. After that, I disappeared into the mist. They didn't follow.

I was thinking about going to the final stage, but then I thought of all the ninja that must be waiting in ambush…and all the traps that would be set. Still, I needed to get as close to the tower as soon as possible.

I tunneled myself under the ground, moving the rock in front of and behind me. Every once in a while I had to make a hole to bring in fresh air. Underground living was not my thing. I did, however, find some wild carrots and other vegetables growing in the ground. That would sustain me for the rest of the day.

When I brought my head up to the surface, I saw that I was close to the tower. Tunneling had been a good idea, because I missed many of the genjutsu illusions waiting.

It was nearing twilight, but I created a mist and reached the tower. I walked into a room and saw a banner on the wall. It stated: If you do not possess heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared. If you do not possess earth, run through the fields and seek strength. If you open both heaven and earth scrolls, dangerous paths turn into safe paths. This is the secret of something something…it shall lead you on the way. There was something missing though. The message was to open both the heaven and the earth scrolls at the same time…well, here goes.

"Stop and hand over your scrolls, unless you want to die!"

I froze and turned around. I had forgotten to close the door, and a team of ninja had followed me in. I would not let them take the scrolls! Not after all I went through!

The three came at me, but I dodged their attacks. I threw shuriken at them, but I missed. They served my purpose though…a trap. One of the ninja fell for it and got cut across the face. They all came after me again. I used the element of wind and stopped them in their tracks. Then I added shuriken to the wind. The three of them had used replacement techniques—and had jumped from above me. I couldn't dodge it in time and had to block it instead, resulting in a bloody nose on my part. I used chakra to keep myself tethered to the wall and ran around the room with speed that surprised myself, as well as my opponents. I ran through the center of the floor, ripping it up as I went. I punched one ninja straight on, and he fell. The other two I went after dodged my kicks, but then I used fire and caught one. He fell and landed on top of the first, unconscious. The third came at me again—idiot. I struck him behind the head with a surprise attack, and he fell as well, but not before shooting a kunai at me. It hit me in the leg, and I cried out. This wasn't over yet. He got back up and came at me again, this time with shuriken. I used a replacement jutsu and came at him with speed from the side, getting a kunai in his side. Then I went from the front and hit him with my fist, head on. He fell as well.

Now that that was over…I limped to the door and shut it. I pulled the kunai from my leg. Now. The scrolls. I picked them up from where I had dropped them and opened them at the same time, throwing them out while holding on to the edge.


	8. Chapter 8

There was a summoning jutsu on the inside of both of them that said, "person," or "jin." I quickly threw the scrolls down, and something was summoned.

It was one of the Chuunin examiners from the first test. Kamizuki Izumo. _He's cute…_ I thought to myself, and blushed a little bit. He's the one who's always with Hagane Kotetsu.

"Congrad—ula…tions…" He was looking behind me at the bodies on the floor, and then looked at my bloody nose and leg. "Attacked up until the last minute?" he asked.

 _I wonder how many teams she fought out there…this is impressive,_ he thought.

"Yeah, actually, I forgot to shut the door behind me…they're the fifth team that tried to ambush me."

 _Damn…_ he thought.

"You're the one who went on this alone, correct?"

"Yes, making me an 'easy' target…" I said.

 _Momochi Amaya…I'm going to have to keep my eye on this one._

"Well, that's a surprise. I'm sure your sensei will be proud. Anyway, congratulations, you pass the second exam!"

"Izumo-sama, what does the writing on the wall mean?" I asked.

 _She knows my name…_

"This is the principal Hokage-sama wrote that you should keep in mind as a Chuunin. The "heaven" of the text points to the head of a person. And "earth" points to the body. If you do not possess heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared. And if you do not possess earth, run through the fields and seek strength. If you have both heaven and earth attributes, any dangerous mission will become safe. Do you get it?"

"Yeah, I see now. And the missing letter…that represents us."

"It's the letter that symbolized a Chuunin. The human letter that was in the scrolls goes there. By becoming a Chuunin, you become commanding class. This means that you must lead teams, and you must go into missions with understanding of the importance of knowledge and strength. This must be inscribed into your heart. Never forget this principal."

"Yes sir!"

 _She finished this part of the exam alone…and in two days. This group of Genin holds a lot of talent. I think I'll speak to Kakashi about her later…_

"You have three days to rest before we start the third exam. However, there is an important meeting after the second part officially ends. You must stay in this building until then."

"So…does that mean I can't get a hot shower and a real meal?"

He laughed at me. "Don't worry, we have the facilities here for you. Rest up, because you'll need it. So far, you're the second to get to the tower."

"What am I supposed to do for those three days, though? Train? I suspect that waiting for seventy-two hours is going to get a little old."

"Well, you can definitely train, but there's also a small library here. Unfortunately, not many people finish the test this quickly, so we don't exactly 'plan' things for them to do. Follow me, and I'll show you the room you'll be staying in."

"Thanks, Izumo-sama," I replied.

When I got to my room, he left. I walked down the hall to the bathroom and took a hot shower. I immediately fell asleep thereafter.

I awoke in the early morning, and decided to explore the building we were in.

I passed by a kitchen and saw a plate of bread rolls sitting on the counter, along with some fruit. I grabbed a roll and an apple, and munched as I walked. The next rooms I passed were empty, but I saw Temari training in one of the bigger ones. Her team must have been the first to get here.

I followed the hallway, which was spiraling upwards, and I suddenly came upon two large ornate doors. After I pushed them creakily open, I was greeted by a circular room about four stories tall, filled with books.

"No way…" I said to myself. "A 'small' library?"

Sunlight filtered in through an opening in the ceiling, giving the place an ethereal glow. I started walking around slowly, touching the dusty covers of books as I went.

"I see you found the library," I heard someone say. I turned to see Izumo smiling by the door.

"This place is amazing! What kind of a collection is this?"

"This room contains everything from the ancient history of shinobis to the Hokage's personal collection. Not many people know about it, but it's one of my favorite places to be when I have extra time."

"You probably don't get a whole lot of extra time, do you?" I asked him, turning my head around to look at a massive amount of hand written manuscripts.

"No. As a Chuunin, there's always something to be done."

I smiled. "And what are you supposed to be doing now?" I asked.

"Well, I'm stationed here with Iruka and Kotetsu until more teams begin to show up and summon us with the scrolls. In years past, only one person has done this job, but since there are so many teams, we need more people in case two teams show up at the same time."

"And that means you'll probably be here for a while. I doubt there are going to be too many teams in today…they won't get through the traps set next to the tower," I said matter-of-factly.

"They won't, and you did?" he asked me coyly.

I turned to him and grinned. "I have my secrets."

"Why didn't you stay out there? I'd have thought you would want to help your team?" His tone was a little more serious now.

"Well, first of all, my team can handle themselves. They're all strong and I have confidence that they will make it here. Second of all, the longer I stayed in that forest, the weaker I got. I was ambushed almost without rest, because as soon as I took care of one team, then next was upon me, thinking I wasn't watching my back. The sooner I got here, the smaller the chance of dying became. What good would I be to my team if I were dead? Third of all, Anko-sama told me I'd be disqualified if found working with them, as would they. I wouldn't jeopardize them in that way."

I pulled a book off of a shelf and blew the dust off of the cover. It was a manuscript, bound in black leather, but didn't have a title.

 _Fascinating…_ he thought.

"What is?" I asked him.

"Excuse me?" he looked at me confused.

Damn. I was so engrossed in this book that I didn't realize he hadn't spoken out loud.

"Oh, sorry, I thought you said something."

Hagane Kotetsu busted through the door at that moment.

"Izumo! Anko-sama needs help _now_!"

 _What the hell is he doing?_ Came the thought in his head. He looked at me suspiciously.

"Sorry Amaya-chan, gotta go. I'll see you later," Izumo said. He ran out of the room with Kotetsu.

 _This is an exam! Take it seriously, and stop flirting with the examiners,_ Itachi laughed at me.

 _Not flirting,_ I said with a slight smile on my face. I mean, why not? Izumo was cute, younger than Kakashi, and most definitely not my sensei.

 _What about Kakashi? And that 'feeling?'_ He was talking about the electricity. I ignored him.

 _So how much did you win from Hoshigaki? He really…should have…known…hey Itachi!_ I trailed off.

 _What?_ He asked.

 _I think I found something. They called her Kasumi…it's the only name she's known by._ I was speaking, of course, about the beast residing in me.

According to this book, she took the form of a white phoenix. She was called Kasumi, or Mist, because she first rose on a misty morning near my hometown. She was said to have protected the town from invaders by using the five elements: water, fire, earth, wind…and lightning.

 _Lightning? Are you sure that's her?_ Itachi asked.

 _I don't know…I've never experimented with lightning before…but listen to this._ I started reading out loud.

"'A group of hunter-ninja from the Earth Country had heard about Kasumi. They planned to gain fame and power by catching and killing her. In order to save their guardian, the people of the Hidden Mist Village gave up their protection for her safety, and sealed Kasumi away within a human child.'"

 _That couldn't have been you._

"Wait. There's more to it. 'The human carrier may travel away from the village, but when he or she dies, Kasumi's spirit returns to her home. Though only myth, it is said that an ancient ritual is performed every one hundred years, placing Kasumi into a new human carrier for her own safety. In return for protection, Kasumi allows the carrier to have use of her abilities and her chakra. Kasumi is said to be the spirit of the founder of the Hidden Mist Village, who gave her life to make a home for her people. Because of her courage and valor, she was granted another form after death and also the ability to use the five elements.'"

 _What book is this?_ Itachi asked, more serious in tone than I had ever heard him before.

 _It's not a book…it's a bound manuscript. The title is 'Ancient History and Myths of the Mist,' and there's no author. Also…Itachi?_

 _Yes?_

 _My birthday came exactly seven hundred years after Kasumi was first sealed away into a human being._

 _You must search this library to see if you can find information on those that housed her before you. If you know what happened to them, you might receive insight as to what your fate is._ His voice was almost frantic.

 _There are pages missing in this manuscript_ , I said, turning the page. _I need to ask the Hokage…_

I put the manuscript down and searched the shelves for the missing pages. I couldn't find any of them. I searched in the library until sundown, but found nothing. I picked up the original manuscript and took it with me back to my room, intending to read through the entire book.

As I was reading about how the Hidden Mist Village came to be, a knock came to my door. I got up and answered.

It was Izumo.

"Hey, Amaya-chan, just thought I'd check on you to see how you're doing." He grinned and scratched his head awkwardly. I laughed at him.

"Hi Izumo-sama!" I opened the door a little wider. "I'm glad you stopped by. I wanted to ask how many more teams came in today?" I asked him.

"Three. So that's four altogether, thirteen candidates, including you."

"Did—"

"No, the rest of your squad isn't in yet. But they still have two more days."

I smiled. "It's like you can read my mind."

He laughed at that. I wished that I could share the irony with him.

 _Damn…she really is cute,_ I heard him think.

"Do you want to walk around a bit?" I asked him. "I've been sitting in that library all day and I need to stretch my legs."

"You like to read that much?" he asked me.

"Yeah. Especially history…the vast amount of books in that library is just amazing."

"Did you find anything that interested you?"

"Oh yes!" I launched into the history of the Hidden Mist Village and their alliances, the First Great War…but he wasn't listening. I didn't mind though, because his thoughts were equally, if not more, entertaining.

 _She's strong, smart, beautiful…how have I never noticed her before this? I should have paid more attention when she came to our village. I mean, she knew who I was when she came in from the test…wait…has she been watching me? I really should talk to Kakashi…_

Kotetsu walked around the corner. I stopped talking. He froze when he saw us together, and so did we. Izumo twitched.

"Ko…Kotetsu!" he stammered.

 _This is bad…_ Izumo thought.

"Oh hello, Kotetsu-sama! Were you looking for your partner in crime?" I asked. I had to keep this from getting awkward.

"Hmph, yes." He looked really angry.

 _I can't believe it,_ Issued the thought from Kotetsu's head.

 _Damn. I'm going to get it for this later…_ Izumo thought.

"Well Izumo-sama, it looks like you better go. Thank you for checking on me though, I really appreciate it," I said, and I took the liberty to wink at him.

He did a double take, and a wide grin slowly crept onto his face. However, any thoughts that he had were drowned out by Kotetsu's voice in my head.

 _No way in hell is he finding a girl before I do, nor will he EVER ditch me to go see one! Especially while he's an examiner in the Chuunin exam!_ Dang. Kotetsu really was angry. Seems like a friendly rivalry was taking place here. I slowly shut the door as they walked away, and then I giggled to myself before deciding to go to bed.


	9. Chapter 9

The next day, I saw no sign of Izumo or Kotetsu. That was okay with me—I had work to do. I finished the book but gleaned no more information on Kasumi, or those who housed her previously. I searched the library high and low, but the most exciting documents I found were those relating to the Uchiha clan. I did come across a diary of the First Hokage, but I didn't have time to read it and many of the pages were too worn to read. I did, however, keep the original manuscript I found, intending to ask the Third Hokage about it after the Chuunin exam. The rest of the day was uneventful.

Twenty-four hours until the second part ended. All I had to do now was wait. I got some sleep, then went to a training room and stretched my body, making sure I was healed up and ready to go. I was curious about the element of lightning, and decided to experiment, with Itachi's help of course.

 _Well, anger brings out the fire. Water, earth, and wind all surround me, and I only control them. How could I bring out lightning?_ I asked him.

 _Do you want the scientific explanation?_ He said.

 _Not really…I assume it will be like fire. I'll probably need to link it to an emotion._

The more I tried, the more frustrated I became.

 _Are you sure about the fifth element?_ Itachi asked.

 _I think so…at least, that book said there was. It also mentioned about mixing them…but I'm not so sure about that._

 _Give it a rest for the day. You've got that meeting in a couple hours…no point in wasting chakra now._

Later, I met with the other teams who had passed the second exam. Eight teams passed, twenty-five people, including me. They would have to do preliminary exams first to level people out. All of the Jounin teachers were there, as well as Anko-sama, the Hokage, and other Chuunins. I saw Izumo next to Kotetsu. They both looked stoic, but underneath they were angry at each other.

As I looked around me, I realized a lot of ninja had dropped out, but not enough. Seventy-nine people in the beginning, twenty-five left.

Sakura surprised me then. She told Sasuke to drop out, because she knew he was in pain, ever since he got some sort of bruise from Orochimaru.

 _Orochimaru… I'd heard that name before, in Kakashi's as well as Itachi's mind. He was some sort of missing ninja…S…S…S something….SANNIN! I knew who he was! Shit! He was an S-Class missing ninja…and my team had had an encounter with him? Why was he here?_

 _It was for Sasuke. He had given Sasuke a cursed seal._

"Whatever you do, I'm going to tell the teachers about that bruise," Sakura said. She started to raise her hand.

Then Kabuto raised his hand and opted out, because he was 'too weak.' That wasn't true. A series of thoughts flew through his mind so fast that I almost didn't catch them.

 _He's…a spy…_ I thought. _A spy for Orochimaru…so is his team…_

"The teachers already know, Sakura," I said through gritted teeth. My fists were balled up, and I was shaking with anger.

She didn't hear me. Sasuke was angry with her for even thinking of the idea.

 _Orochimaru…_ I opened my mind to people, and closed my eyes… _was in the room with us..._

I shook my head from side to side, trying to cease the anger.

 _Amaya, what's wrong?_ A voice said. I opened my eyes. It was Itachi _._

 _Orochimaru is here…_ I replied _._

 _The Jounin will take care of it. Trust me. Don't do anything rash. Look, Kakashi and the other Jounin can tell that something is wrong. Calm down._

Why did Orochimaru want Sasuke?

This exam was a chance for each village to show the strength of it's shinobi, and hence forth, the strength of the nation. Orochimaru was testing Sasuke.

The preliminaries commenced: one-on-one matches with a Jounin named Gekkou Hayate as referee.

"Then, let's begin the preliminary matches," He said. "Now that we have exactly twenty-four people, we will have twelve matches, and the winners will be able to advance to the third exam. There are no rules. You will fight until the other person dies, is knocked out, or admits defeat. If you do not want to die, please give up immediately. However, if I judge that the match is over, I may stop you to prevent any unnecessary deaths."

Our names were chosen randomly for who would fight each other, and they were chosen immediately.

First: Akadou Yoroi vs. Uchiha Sasuke

We were told to go up to the sides to watch. I followed Kakashi up the stairs.

"Kakashi, Orochimaru is here…" I whispered to him. He turned around and stopped. "Please watch out for Sasuke," I said. Then I stepped past him and joined Sakura and Naruto.

I heard Kakashi talking with Sasuke. From the thoughts running through his head, he had already known about the danger of Orochimaru. He told Sasuke not to use his Sharingan, or the cursed seal would take over and possibly kill him.

Thus, they began. I could tell Sasuke was in pain, and apparently, Yoroi had the ability to steal chakra. Though slow, Sasuke did a taijutsu move that he had seen another boy, Rock Lee, perform earlier.

He was about to perform his technique, when the seal took over and spread to half of his body. He willed it to recede before anything bad happened. Sasuke continued his technique and back knuckled Yoroi to the ground, struck him in the stomach, turned and kicked him in the ground too, smashing him down. He called it "Lion Combo." With that, Sasuke had won the first match.

Sasuke was about to collapse, but Kakashi was there, congratulating him. I somehow made a mental note that Kakashi had a new book, Icha Icha Violence, or Make-Out Violence. Hmph. Just another thing for me to hate. Kakashi left with Sasuke as the other matches continued. As I read his mind, I found he was going to seal the curse.

Second match: Zaku Abumi vs. Aburame Shino 

Another rookie, Shino. I had never seen him fight before.

At the beginning of the match, Zaku seemed to have broken arms. I wondered how that happened, until I read his mind and found out that Sasuke had done it to him. Zaku felt some movement in one of his arms and used air pressure in his arm to knock Shino to the side. Shino stood up, releasing bugs as he went. An army of bugs went behind Zaku. The bugs were supposed to suck Zaku dry of his chakra, but Zaku had a plan. He had bluffed and both of his arms were usable. Yet as he tried to use his hands, air pressure built up and blew holes in the sides of Zaku's arms. Shino had cleverly used his bugs to plug up the holes in Zaku's hands, and as Zaku tried to use them, the chakra built up and caused a backup, forcing chakra in other places, not through the palms. The match was over, and Shino won.

Kakashi reappeared at that moment.

"Sasuke's going to be okay, right?" I asked.

"He should be. He's resting now."

"Shino won the last match. Just a heads up."

Third Match: Tsurugi Misumi vs. Kankurou

Kankuro, the one from Gaara's team went up against Misumi, the other boy from Kabuto's team. Misumi has this wonderful jutsu where he can dislocate all the bones on his body and use them to constrict the foe. He seemed to have broken Kankuro's neck, but Kankuro was a puppet, and the real Kankuro was in the puppet case, controlling the puppet that was constricting Misumi. Misumi then forfeited and the match was called in Kankuro's favor.

Fourth Match: Haruno Sakura vs. Yamanaka Ino

As they started fighting, they were matched perfectly against each other.

"Sakura-chan is at an advantage," Naruto said.

"Idiot," Shikamaru told him.

"What did you say?" Naruto replied.

"If you're not an idiot, you must be sleeping."

"They're female ninja, after all. Their physical abilities are lower than normal,"

Neji said from behind Naruto.

"It's not because they are female," Tenten retorted. "Those two are just soft on each other. Sex doesn't matter in battle."

"I agree with Tenten," I said.

As Ino was going in for a punch, she suddenly stopped and slapped Sakura instead. They both decided to get serious about this from then on. They both took their forehead protectors and actually put them on their foreheads, signifying something to them. I didn't delve into it; this fight was between them, and them alone. Then they continued, and they were both evenly matched.

After ten minutes, they both hurled insults at each other. As a result, Ino cut her hair off and threw it at Sakura. With this, she formed a line to Sakura and trapped her in a rope of chakra and hair. Then she used her mind transfer jutsu and was going to make Sakura give up. However, Sakura's will was stronger and she kicked Ino out of her body. They kept fighting. As the final blow came along, they both hit each other hard and both fainted at the same time, and both went unconscious. Sadly, neither passed.

Fifth Match: Tenten vs. Temari

For the next match, Temari, the girl on Gaara's team went up against TenTen, the girl on Rock Lee's team. TenTen can summon up many types of weapons, but they all didn't work seeing as Temari's fan just blew them away. Temari also blew TenTen away, literally. TenTen was flying through a wind vortex and fell right on top of Temari's fan. That must have hurt…Bad. Anyway, Temari won.

Sixth Match: Nara Shikamaru vs. Kin Tsuchi

Kin Tsuchi, the girl on Zaku's team, fought Nara Shikamaru. She used a senbon technique where she threw 2 senbon with bells, which Shikamaru dodged. She had strings attached to the bells, and she jingled them so Shikamaru was distracted. He got hit with two senbon.

What he didn't know though, was that the bells on the senbon sent sound waves into his ear and to his brain, paralyzing him. Yet what Tsuchi didn't know was that with the string attached to the senbon, there was a shadow, and Shikamaru used his shadow jutsu to control Tsuchi's movements. He threw a shuriken at her, and she threw one at him. As he bent over all the way, she bent over…and hit the wall. She was unconscious and Shikamaru won.

Seventh Match: Uzumaki Naruto vs. Inuzuka Kiba

"Good luck Naruto, but you won't need it," I told him cheerfully.

"Thanks Amaya! I'll be back up in a few!"

As I watched the match progress, I couldn't help feeling sorry for Kiba. Time and time again he kicked Naruto down, but Naruto's will surpassed every obstacle. They continued to fight, and my mind wandered to Kakashi. He was standing right next to me.

 _Kakashi?_ I asked in my mind hesitantly. _Are you sure Sasuke will be alright?_

 _There's no need to worry. As long as Sasuke's will is strong, he'll be okay._

I turned my head to face him, but he didn't move.

 _Izumo told me that you made it through the forest in two days,_ he said.

 _Izumo-sama spoke with you already?_

 _Yes. He thinks very highly of you, and was curious about your abilities. I told him he'd have to wait and watch._ _I also told him you were off limits._

 _Wait…you told him what!?_ I asked. That was none of Kakashi's business.

Kakashi laughed at me. I couldn't tell if he had just said that to see what I would do, or if he had actually done it. Either way, I was mad. I turned my eyes back to the fight, right when Naruto farted.

HE FARTED. Right in Kiba's face. And since Kiba has an extraordinary sense of smell, he was holding his nose for a long time, and because Kiba was distracted, Naruto used his shadow clone jutsu and did a jutsu on Kiba, which ended the match in Naruto's favor. Afterward, as he was coming back up, Hinata Hyuuga gave him a healing ointment. That girl may be shy, but I'm sure she has some great feelings for Naruto.

Eighth Match: Hyuuga Hinata vs. Hyuuga Neji

The next battle happened to be Hyuuga Hinata against her cousin, Hyuuga Neji. Nobody thought Hinata had a chance…not even me. Naruto did, but then again, it's Naruto. Neji started out by insulting Hinata, saying that if one is a failure, they are always a failure. He's wrong, and thanks to Naruto, Hinata didn't believe him. They engaged in battle, using their special Byakugan, attacking the lines of chakra. Neji knocked Hinata down again and again, but she kept getting up. Kinda reminded me of Naruto. In the end, Neji was going to finish her, but many of the senseis stopped him. Hinata was in horrible condition, but she did wonderfully, and she surprised us all, even Neji. Hinata has grown very strong since she left the academy.

Ninth Match: Gaara vs. Rock Lee

I had high hopes for Lee, but as I searched Kankuro's and Temari's minds, I found out that Gaara was one that should be feared. Even his sensei feared him…this wasn't good.

Lee couldn't hit Gaara at all. He was dodging sand, and landed on top of the statue at the front of the building.

Gai-sensei told us that Lee was not capable of doing any ninjutsu or genjutsu, only taijutsu. Then he told Lee to take "it" off. I didn't know what he was talking about, until Lee took weights off from around his ankles. They didn't seem like that much, until they fell and hit the ground…and made giant holes in the ground…

"Isn't that too much Gai?" Kakashi asked.

If Lee was fast with the weights, he had like, uber speed without them. He was so fast he surprised us all. I thought he might actually have a chance.

"He can't use any ninjutsu or genjutsu…that is why he spent his time on taijutsu…worked hard and did everything for them," Gai said.

Lee was so fast that he actually kicked Gaara in the head. This surprised his whole team, as well as us. My mouth fell open and I stared.

"Incredible…" I said, "Gaara…is... _was_ …untouchable!" Kakashi glanced at me…I guess he was curious. Gaara housed a demon, just as Naruto, and the demon inside of him took control easily. It protected itself through Gaara's body.

But then I closed my mouth and took a step back. Gaara…sand was falling from his face. He had his body covered in sand to protect himself, and now the sand was crumbling. Gaara was close to releasing his demon self. I walked over to where Naruto and Kankuro stood.

"Amaya?" Naruto asked.

"I thought I might be able to find out more from someone on Gaara's team," I said. "Lee's fast, but if the demon is released, what will happen?"

"How do you know about that?" Kankuro asked me.

"I know many things invisible to others," I said.

"Well, let me just tell you this. It might prove fatal to Lee, even if Gaara's body stays in battle," he told me.

"That's what I thought," I replied.

Then Lee began the Lotus technique. Gaara landed head first on the ground, sand around him cracked.

"No, this can't be," Kankuro said.

"Yeah! Lee-san won!" I heard Sakura cry.

"It's not over yet," I said, so that they could all hear me. "Lee, look out," I said, softer. What had happened was that Gaara had used a shell of sand, a decoy, that Lee had exerted power on. Gaara came up behind Lee and knocked him over.

"At this rate, Gaara will only toy with him before he kills him," Kankuro told us.

"He's thirsting for blood…"it" is," I said.

"You're right," Kankuro replied.

"The lotus in Konoha blooms twice," I heard Gai say.

"Gai, who did you…" Kakashi started.

Gai nodded. "It's just as you suspect," he said.

"So that boy, a Genin, is capable of opening the inner gates of the Eight Gates? And using the Primary Lotus?" Kakashi asked.

"That is correct," Gai replied.

"What a disaster…Gai. How many gates is that boy capable of opening?"

"Five."

"What is this eight gates and primary lotus thing?" Sakura asked. I was listening with interest now.

"The Eight Gates Manipulation is a preparation of taking limiters off to use the Primary Lotus," Gai said.

"Taking limiters off?" Sakura wondered.

"That is correct," Kakashi replied. He revealed his Sharingan, and I knew this was deadly serious. "In the chakra circulatory system," Kakashi went on, "there are gates in each part of the body. From the top, they are Open Gate, Energy Gate, Life Gate, Wound Gate, Forest Gate, View Gate, Insanity Gate, and Death Gate. Those are the eight places where Chakra holes are concentrated. These are known as the Eight Gates.

"These eight gates constantly control the Chakra that flows in your body. But Lotus unfastens those controls with force...and grants the user more than ten times more power. That is its power source."

"Secondary Lotus is a move that opens the first gate, the Open Gate," Gai said. "It unfastens the control of the brain, and enables a person to use his muscles at their limits. The primary lotus opens the second gate, the Energy Gate, and increases one's strength forcefully. After opening the third gate, the Life Gate, the Primary Lotus is carried out."

"By opening all eight gates, you are able to gain temporary powers greater than a Hokage, but the person will….die," Kakashi said. He looked straight at me.

Lee then opened the third life gate, but before he made his move, he kept going, opening the fourth gate. When he attacked, he ripped up the ground and dust flew everywhere. He was fast. He went in for the final blow and opened the fifth gate, adding more power to his attack. He used the primary lotus. However, Gaara saved himself with sand, and crushed Lee's arm and leg. Lee went unconscious. Before Gaara crushed him though, Gai stopped his attack.

Lee was unconscious, but he kept going in his unconscious state. His will and spirit took over his body and fought, while he himself knew not what he was doing. Gaara won in the end, and the medical team took Lee away.

Truly, I believe that Gaara walked away in more pain than Lee.

Tenth Match: Akimichi Chouji vs. Dosu Kinuta

Chouji started out by using his technique where he gets into a ball and rolls towards his opponent. Dosu, however, ran him into a wall and used his attack. He tapped the instrument on his arm, and it knocked out Chouji instantly. Dosu won. Then, it was my turn.


	10. Chapter 10

Eleventh Match: Momochi Amaya vs. Haburuka Yoshi

Yoshi was on a team of ninja from the Waterfall Village. Before we started the fight, Itachi's link to my mind became stronger than ever.

 _What?_ I asked.

 _Don't show them too much, but give them a taste for what you can do._

We began with some hand-to-hand combat. I didn't know what Yoshi could do, and I wasn't going to be surprised by it, so I searched his mind. His technique was that he could enter people, sort of like Ino, but he could actually physically enter a person's body and take control, even while retaining consciousness in his own. I decided not to get too close, and backed up, forming hand signs. He was standing across from me, and forming hand signs too. I tried to water clone, but there wasn't enough moisture in the air. Gaara's sand had sucked the room dry.

"Damn it!" I said.

Then, Yoshi's ninjutsu began. I waved my hand in front of my face, creating a wall of earth to block the attack. His ninjutsu destroyed the wall, but by then, I was gone.

 _Where is she?_ Came his thoughts _. She's not in front, behind, left, right, or up…she must be below_.

In fact, I was, but I wasn't going to let him know that.

 _No silly,_ I said to him. _I'm inside of you._

"Wh…Wha?" he began. "Hmph…you like to toy with your food before you eat it?"

I laughed. _I haven't been playing at all. But just so you know, talking to yourself doesn't make you seem any smarter to the shinobis watching._

"Where the hell are you?!" he yelled, and put his hands to his head. "Get the hell out of my head!"

I complied, but he was already trapped. I moved the earth around and surfaced in front of him.

"YOU!" he said, and he immediately started forming hand signs.

"You're too late!" I said, and I lifted my hands upward. As I did, massive plants broke through the ground and twined around him, wrapping him still. Out of the plant that twined to the top of his head sprouted a single chrysanthemum.

"Beautiful. It's impossible for you to get out of that," I said. "Just go ahead and try. This match is over."

"What the hell?! How did you do this?" he exclaimed. He struggled, but he couldn't move.

"I was below you the entire time. Underneath this building, in the earth, it's not hard to find seeds. The problem is, they're dormant. Thankfully, I had water in my canteen. Once I plant the seeds and give them water, it's chakra that makes them grow. You can't break out of that because each and every stem, branch, and leaf is infused with chakra, making it stronger than any normal plant. It doesn't even matter what type of seed I find. If I can germinate it, then it's deadly. Just feel lucky it wasn't a flower with thorns."

"Those vines are burning with chakra," Neji said. He was watching with his Byakugan.

"Alright! I forfeit!" Yoshi said.

"Winner: Momochi Amaya!" announced Hayate.

I started walking away.

"Hey! What about me!" Yoshi yelled.

"Oh, right." I walked up to him and plucked the chrysanthemum from the vines. Then, I focused on pulling the life force out of the vines, and they crumbled around him.

I walked back up the steps to stand next to my team.

I completely missed the next match, because I was twirling the flower around and around in my hands. I was thinking about Izumo, and what Kakashi had said.

Sakura was talking to Kakashi, when suddenly he said he had to go. I had a feeling it was still about Sasuke.

The next match ended, and a guy named Susumu Mifune won. He was Yoshi's teammate, and had also beaten their other teammate in the final match.

The Hokage congratulated us all, and proceeded to tell us that the actual third exam would be held in one month so we'd have time to train. He also drew the final pairings at random, and I was going to be in the last match against Mifune.

I scanned his mind—he thought that all I could do was play with plants. Yoshi would warn him about the mind games, I'm sure.

As I was following Naruto to leave and check on Sasuke, we walked past Kotetsu, Anko, and Izumo. Anko was laughing at something they had said.

"Hey, Izumo-sama! Catch!" I said, and sent the chrysanthemum flying at him like a kunai. He grabbed it mid flight and smiled at me.

"Looks like Izumo has an admirer!" Anko said. I had my back to them, but I could see exactly what they were doing. Izumo looked down at the flower, and then started jogging after me.

"Gee Kotetsu, don't get so jealous!" Anko told him and laughed. He was glaring daggers at Izumo's back.

"Amaya-chan!" Izumo called to me. I turned around.

"Amaya-chan, will you do honor of letting me take you out to dinner?" he asked.

I blushed deep red. His question had completely surprised me, because I was focusing too hard on Kotetsu's and Anko's thoughts.

"I…um…I'd love to!" I said.

"Will you be here tomorrow night?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm taking a day or so to pack before I leave to train."

We smiled at each other. Kotetsu was fuming, and Anko was laughing at him. I read his thoughts and realized his anger was coming more from his rivalry with Izumo rather than Izumo's actions.

 _How is it possible that Izumo got a date first? I'm definitely the more manly!_

I laughed under my breath and continued towards the hospital.

Kakashi was speaking with Naruto when I got there.

"I've found you someone more reliable than me," he told Naruto. Kakashi was going to train Sasuke.

While Naruto was distracted by Ebisu-sensei, I took the liberty to speak with Kakashi.

"How's Sasuke?"

"He'll be okay. I'll be training him before the next part of the Chuunin exam. Do you have someone to train you?" he asked.

"As a matter of fact, I do."

"And who would that be?" He looked at me.

"A friend Zabuza introduced me to, after we left the Mist Village."

"I look forward to seeing how you'll improve," he said.

"Kakashi-sensei, did you really tell Izumo-sama that I was off limits?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Why, do you like him?"

"I…I don't know yet. But I'd really appreciate it if you stayed out of my personal life. Especially that part of my personal life."

I could tell that my answer surprised him.

 _Where the hell did this come from?_ He thought. Then— _Damn. She must actually like him._

Wait…was that tone, disappointment?

"Well, as a matter of fact, I didn't tell him you were off limits…but I'll make sure to stay out of your way, and his," he said, kind of harshly.

"Hmph. I'll see you in a month, Kakashi-sensei," I said. I turned to leave and stalked out of the hospital.

 _Ouch. Should you really be talking to your elders that way?_ As always, Itachi was there to comment.

 _You sound so happy that I'm angry with him._

 _Maybe, maybe not._

 _Itachi, I tested my abilities, like you told me to. I want to train. When can I meet you?_ I asked, completely changing the subject.

 _We can start in two days. I have a certain business to take care of, and I believe you have things to do as well._

He was speaking not only about my upcoming date with Izumo, but also about meeting with the Hokage over the information from the library.

 _You need to find out as much information as possible,_ he said. _Before we can train, however, we need to talk._

 _Go ahead. Start talking._ I was being completely curt.

 _No…Amaya,_ his voice was gentler now. _We need to talk about what exactly you're doing. And we need to talk in person._

 _What do you mean 'what I'm doing?' I thought that—_

He cut me off.

 _What I mean is that you need to figure out how you feel! This bond lets me feel exactly what you are feeling, and when you are around Kakashi, you feel confused. Once Izumo came along, you felt relief, but also anger._

 _Who are you to tell me how I'm feeling!?_ I snapped at him. _I know exactly how I feel._

 _I don't think you do, because if you weren't lying to yourself right now, you would realize that your anger is coming from the fact that you just lost Kakashi._

Then, he was gone.

I went to my room, and for the first time since Zabuza died, I cried. To be completely honest, I _didn't_ know what I was doing. I didn't know who I loved or what I was supposed to do…how could I, when I barely knew anything about myself?

As I sat in silence, I thought back on my past. For the first thirteen years of my life, I was shunned. Hated even. But really, that had done nothing to me. Looking back, I realized I should have become a monster, learning to hate those that hated me. I should have learned to hate humanity, because I had never even seen what compassion looked like. However, I had protected that village with my life, even when we fought Zabuza. I protected my prison, and those that despised me. Suddenly, through my tears, a thought shone into my head.

 _Kasumi. Ever so silently, she's instilling a need to protect. Her job was to protect the village, no matter what the cost._

 _If our identities are entwined, then, what is her, and what is me?_ _Who is she trying to protect, and who am I trying to love?_

So many thoughts were swirling around in my head that it started aching. It slowly turned into a splitting headache, and all I could do was cry in the darkness. Sleep overcame me…and then the dreams started.


	11. Chapter 11

I was walking down a road lined with trees. It was dark, and the branches cast eerie shadows along the ground. However, I was not scared. I felt at peace, even when the mist started flowing in through the trees.

 _Amaya…_

A voice whispered my name, sighing it into the darkness.

 _Amaya…I will show you what you want to know._

I looked, and a great door appeared in front of me. I hesitated, and then pushed the tall doors open, stepping into a light that blinded my path.

The first scene that greeted me was my village, the Hidden Mist. It was older then…the buildings were only small huts, and old fishing boats lined the waters around the beaches. Actually, at this point, it wasn't even known as the Village Hidden in the Mist. It was just a tribe of people living in the water country, and it was primitive. I saw a woman with white hair directing people where to go. As she turned and faced where I was, I caught my breath. She was absolutely gorgeous. And…her eyes…her eyes were the same unmistakable deep blue that mine were.

"Kasumi!" a man's voice called. He was standing on the beach, walking towards her. She smiled at him, and as they met, he kissed her ever so gently. She had her hands on her stomach, and he looked down at it lovingly. Kasumi was pregnant.

The scene shifted. A war was being fought in the village, from a neighborhood tribe. Kasumi and her husband were at the forefront of the fighting, but suddenly, one of the huts burst into flame behind them. They looked at each other, and Kasumi's husband ran back to the little house. Kasumi continued fighting.

Her husband later came back out of the house, holding a small girl in his arms. _Their daughter_. As Kasumi turned to look at her daughter, she was caught by the enemy's sword slicing through her side.

"No!" yelled her husband.

Kasumi's eyes started glowing, and as a last act, she summoned forth the water around the village to wash away the remainder of the opponent. Then, she died as her husband and child watched on.

After Kasumi was buried, a white phoenix emerged from the depths of the waters and searched the land for the husband without a wife and the child without a mother. It was her bright spirit returning.

The scene changed again. This time, Kasumi's child had children of her own, but this was also when the hunter-ninja were coming to kill the great phoenix they had heard about.

Kasumi's daughter did what she thought was necessary, and sealed her mother's spirit into one of her own children, a girl named Hamako.

The village was able to fight off the hunter-nin, and as Hamako grew, she came into control of four of the elements. She lacked the use of lightning. She became well known throughout the village, and began to help domesticate them. She went on to become one of the greatest kunoichis in Mist Village history. She lived to an old age, and then died in her sleep peacefully. When Hamako died, Kasumi's spirit left the body. However, because of her own daughter's sealing technique, she couldn't live without another human, and therefore entered the body of Hamako's grandchild.

The child's name was Harou, and he also mastered four of the elements, excluding lightning. He, unlike his ancestors, began traveling the world, showing off his powers and claiming to be a god. He was later assassinated in his sleep, and Kasumi's spirit found it's way back to the waters of the Mist Village. Because she now could not survive without a body, she began a process of entering a human every one hundred years or so. The child, however, had to be one of a line of her own offspring.

Harou's sister had great-grandchildren, one of which became the next carrier. Her name was Kairi, and she lacked the control to master any of the elements, therefore never using them. She married and lived the life of a housewife, rather than a ninja. When she died, Kasumi's spirit chose a bright young girl named Isoko, one of Kairi's great-grandchildren. She trained hard and was the first to understand the use of lightning, writing many books about her technique. However, she was never able to use it before she died.

Three generations later, a little boy named Kaimu was born. Kasumi entered him, but he began to lock the secrets of Kasumi away, and her legacy became a myth among the village. He realized that her power posed a great danger, and tried to make her story disappear. Kasumi's family line began to fall into the unknown. Kaimu thought that he had locked Kasumi away for good, but after he died, she entered yet another child, Kaya.

Kaya was Kaimu's great-great-grandchild, and she came upon the secrets of Kasumi by herself. By this time, the Hidden Mist had forgotten about Kasumi, and thought that she was a demon. When Kaya was grown, she started teaching her children the secrets of Kasumi based on Isoko's writing. When the villagers found out about this, they killed Kaya and burned the books.

Three generations later, to a family with the surname Momochi, a young girl was born. Her name was Amaya, and Kasumi chose her. Amaya was the last of Kasumi's bloodline.

 _I am Amaya._

The scene closed and I found myself back on the path with all the trees. I turned around and jumped, because the great white phoenix herself was peering at me through blue eyes that mirrored my own.

 _"Amaya…what a beautiful name…"_ her voice was ethereal in the darkness.

"Kasumi?" I asked.

 _"Amaya, you have been gifted with many talents…and you have been through so much…you only deserve to know what happened and what your own history is."_

I thought about everything Kasumi had shown me. I stepped closer to her and put my hand on her head, stroking the feathers. She cooed.

"If…if I'm the only one left in the bloodline…what happens to you if I die?"

 _"I cease to exist. The protection my daughter gave me is also my curse, but at the time, neither she nor I knew what was going to happen. When I was granted a spirit form, I was told that if I am killed in this form, I will move on into the afterlife. It was a second chance to be with those I loved. When my beloved child sealed me away, I was cursed to wander this earth at someone else's bidding for the rest of eternity._

 _"You are my last surviving descendant, my dear Night Rain, and I have but one thing to ask of you…"_

"Please, Kasumi, I think I know. You want me to release you so you can move on into the afterlife and be at peace with those you love. Just tell me what to do, and I will do it."

 _"You are wise, child, and ever so kind. Before you can set me free, however, you must learn what those before you failed to acquire…the use of lightning. Only with all five elements will you be able to break the eternal seal that binds me to you. My own daughter used the five elements to seal me, and only the same technique will set me free."_

"Kasumi…if and when I am able to release you…what will happen to me?"

 _"Ah…that I am unsure of. Isoko wanted to release me, but she died before she had the ability. You have come farther in the mastery of the elements as she did, but without her knowledge and her writing, you'll have to find your own way."_

"Her writings were burned, though, when Kaya was killed."

 _"Yes…but you see, Kaya was wise. She knew the books would be destroyed, so she made a copy for herself and sealed the real manuscripts in a cove beneath the sea. If you can find that cove and recover the information, you will likely be able to master the fifth element. Before, however, you must have competency in your strength, otherwise you will die as Isoko died."_

"How…how did Isoko die?" I asked hesitantly.

 _"She attempted to use the fifth element. She, however, lacked the strength and the control, and she died before she was able to complete the seal releasing ceremony."_

I was silent for a second.

 _"Amaya, you are my last descendant, and only you will be able to free me."_

"What if I can't? If I don't, will you be able to live through my own children?"

 _"Yes, but my child, don't you understand? It becomes riskier and riskier for me through each generation. I may not live to see the afterlife…my spirit will cease to exist if your own disappears. Would you choose a fate like this for your own offspring? To make your own family line search, to cause them the pain that I have caused you…I would wish that on no one. I believe that it is your fate to do this, Amaya…you see, you share her name."_

"Who's name?"

 _"My daughter…my husband and I named her Amaya because of the deep stillness we saw in her eyes. They have a depth to them, and purity, like a cleansing night rain in the middle of summer. They were exactly like my eyes were…and they are the same as yours. The difference…your eyes hold not only the clear depth, as if you can see anything at all, but they also have a fire behind them…passion. That is why I believe you are the only one that can free me. Please, my beloved Amaya, please."_

Everything faded to blackness.


	12. Chapter 12

I woke up gasping and in a cold sweat. It was still dark outside, and as I glanced at my alarm clock, I realized it was one A.M. I sat up in bed and stared out my window. The moon was rising bright and full, and the weight of everything I had just learned crashed down upon me.

I stood up and went to my bathroom, splashing cold water on my face. I grabbed a jacket and left my room, walking down the brightly lit hallway of the apartment complex I was living in, and exiting the building into the chilly night air.

 _Itachi?_ I asked. There was no response. At this hour, I figured he had already gone to sleep.

I walked through the empty streets slowly, my shadow extending and shortening in rhythm as I walked towards and past each of the streetlamps. I turned down a busier street, where the sake bars and the nightlife were concentrated. People were dancing and talking loudly. As I passed one bar, I looked into the big windows to see Asuma, Kurenai, and Kakashi sitting together at a table. Kakashi's back was towards me, but Asuma saw me and mentioned something to Kakashi. My sensei turned his head and made eye contact. His body lifted and fell as he sighed deeply before he reached into his pocket and placed a couple coins on the table. He stood up and turned towards the door.

I was already walking away by the time he stepped out of the bar.

"Amaya!" he called loudly. I didn't answer, and kept walking. I heard him sigh loudly and think, _What am I going to do with you?_

He caught up to me quickly, and we walked for a couple of blocks in silence.

I didn't realize that tears were falling from my eyes until he stopped me, tilted my chin up, and wiped them away with his thumb.

 _How could I snap at you before?_ I thought to myself, _You always seem to be there when I need you most._

 _Amaya…really…what's wrong?_ He asked through his mind.

I couldn't open my mouth to say the words because I knew the tears would start to flow freely. My thoughts wouldn't even form coherent sentences. I tried nevertheless.

"Have…have you ever thought that the life you've been given isn't the one that you want?" I asked him, "Like fate is knocking on your doorstep, but you're not ready to give in?"

 _What the hell happened to you?_ He thought softly.

"I'm scared, Kakashi. I'm terrified." _Itachi was right. I was a mess._ The tears started flowing faster.

Kakashi took me and pulled me into an embrace, wrapping his strong arms around my body as it began to rain.

I don't know how long we stood there, but we were soaked through in just a few minutes. After my body stopped heaving with my tears, he said,

"Night rain…it's been a while since we've had rain in this village. And it's beautiful. Amaya…do you want to explain?"

I nodded my head.

"Let's get dry first," he told me, then unwrapped his arms from around me and took me to his own apartment room. It was a small, single-room apartment, homely but cozy.

When we got there, he opened a trunk near the door and tossed a long-sleeve black shirt towards me, along with a pair of pants, and then directed me towards the bathroom. It was down the hall.

I changed out of my wet clothes and into the dry ones—they were a little big but comfortable in spite of that.

The door was still cracked when I was walking back, and I opened it right when Kakashi stripped off his wet shirt, hanging it over the trunk to dry. He turned toward me, his toned body still glistening from the rain. He had a scar along his left side, and another one on his opposite shoulder. As always, half of his face was covered.

"Please, have a seat," he said. I walked over to his small desk and pulled the chair out, turning it around and sitting down. He put on a dry shirt, and then he sat on his bed in front of me, leaning his elbows on his knees.

"Alright, Amaya, what's going on? Ever since the end of the Chuunin exam, you've been slightly off. If I had known you were going to be like this afterwards, I would never have allowed you to go in there alone."

"Kakashi…first of all, I owe you an apology," I started. I looked him in the eye. "I should never have snapped at you about Izumo-sama…"

I paused, and he spoke up. "Is _that_ the reason why—"

"No, no, no, no, no! That's definitely _not_ the reason why my life is falling apart," I said. "I guess I should start at the beginning…"

I took a deep breath and started spilling everything to him, about the manuscript I found in the library, about the dream that I had, about what I needed to do to help Kasumi, and even my fears about death and what would happen should I release her.

I kept talking and talking, revealing more details about myself than I had ever given to anyone before. Kakashi sat there, listening intently as I revealed my trepidations, my family history, my childhood, my life story. The one thing I didn't tell him was about Itachi and my time with the Akatsuki.

The more I spoke, the more I continued to speak. After holding all these secrets inside for so long, they just poured out continuously. I tried to stop, but the look of understanding on Kakashi's face made me so sure that I could trust him.

When all of my words were gone, we sat in silence. I didn't know what he was thinking, but when I tried to read his mind, his thoughts were literally a jumbled mess. He didn't even know what to think.

After a few more moments in silence, I apologized again.

"Kakashi, I'm sorry…I shouldn't have bothered you." I stood up to leave and took a couple steps toward the door, and then I paused and said,

"I just…well…I guess I just needed to tell someone. And…you're really the only person I completely trust…so thank you."

I turned back towards the door and walked out, grabbing my wet clothes along the way. He was still sitting in the same position when I closed the door behind me.


	13. Chapter 13

I awoke the next morning hearing my name being called. Itachi was desperately trying to speak with me.

 _Amaya! What happened last night?!_

 _I'll explain…when we meet. I still have a lot to do today._

I left it at that and went to take a shower. I was still in Kakashi's clothing from the night before, so after my shower I washed and folded them, intending to give them to him before I left.

The next course of action was to see the Hokage. Though many of my questions had been answered the night before, I still wanted to see what he knew, as well as return the manuscript.

I knocked on the Hokage's door, and heard the familiar voice telling me to enter. As I stepped inside, I saw Iruka sitting at a table next to the Hokage's. They were giving out missions to the Genin, Chuunin, and Jounin. Kotetsu and Izumo were standing there, apparently discussing the Chuunin exam. They were still in their official Chuunin exam attire. I had to admit, Izumo looked good in grey.

"Amaya! It's good to see you again. I enjoyed your performance during the preliminaries. What matter do you have to bring to my attention today?" asked the Hokage. He smiled at me.

"I actually had a couple of questions for you sir, if you don't mind…" I looked hesitantly at Kotetsu, Izumo, and Iruka. Would I have to speak to the Hokage in front of them?

Apparently, I was. "Go ahead, Amaya," he told me.

I sighed deeply and started searching through the backpack I had brought with me. Then, I pulled out the leather bound manuscript and placed it on his desk.

"Do you know who wrote this manuscript?" I asked him, straightforward. I saw the surprise on Izumo's face.

"You took a book from that library?!" he exclaimed, obviously surprised that I would do such a thing.

"I never meant to keep it, but the history that lies in these pages is extremely important to me. Hokage-sama, do you know about the missing pages, and the founding of the Mist Village? You know…when it was still technically a tribe, and not a village. In particular, about an individual named Kasumi."

Before he could answer, another knock came to his door.

"…Enter…" he said. His mind was still thinking about Kasumi. He knew something, but he was deciding whether it would be acceptable to tell me or not.

I turned my head towards the door and saw Kakashi come inside. He looked as surprised to see me there as I was seeing him.

 _Well it's just a party in here_ , thought Kotetsu angrily. Izumo still couldn't get past the fact that I had taken a book from the Hokage's library. Iruka was puzzled as to why I wanted to know about the History of the Hidden Mist, and Kakashi…well he was Kakashi. He came and stood next to me.

"Sorry to interrupt, Hokage-sama—" he started, but the Hokage cut him off.

"Sorry Kakashi, but I need to answer Amaya's question first. You want to know about Kasumi," he started. Everyone else in the room began to listen.

"Kasumi was a very powerful kunoichi. She could be considered the first unofficial Mizukage, because she was the leader of her tribe. Her people loved and respected her. However, she died defending her village from an invasion. It was said that her village was attacked because she had begun to delve into an ancient art that let the spirit live on after death. This is similar to the idea of immortality, but of course requires something to be sacrificed. What she realized was that the sacrifice was her own freedom, as well as the freedom of another person. She was killed during the war, and was never able to finish what she started. Myth, however, says that she returned in spirit form."

"How do you know this?" I asked.

"There was a boy named Kaimu who traveled to this village seeking guidance…he was the one that brought us this book. Not all of it is completely true, but this is what the people in the Mist Village believe. The pages that are missing reveal all of this information, but they have been missing since he gave the book to us.

"Kasumi never understood the art of immortality," the Hokage continued, "but her daughter continued her research. When Kasumi's spirit returned and was hunted after, her daughter performed the ritual, taking away her mother's freedom but preserving her spirit forever. Kasumi was sealed into her own grandchild. It was said that her grandchild had great powers, but it is unclear what happened once that child died."

"Hokage-sama…" I began, not exactly sure of how to phrase what I was about to say, "That ritual…is there any way that it could be reversed? I mean to say…is there any way to make the immortal mortal?"

He was caught off guard at my question. So was everyone else in the room.

"What exactly are you asking, Amaya?" He was beginning to realize that we should have had this talk alone.

I spoke softly, hoping that he'd understand me. "I'm asking if there would be any way to give back the freedom and take away the immortality…"

"I'm sorry, but it's said that the only way to do what you ask is if the five elements come together as one. There has been no one able to use all five elements since Kasumi's daughter did to grant her mother immortality."

My ears perked up at this. "Kasumi's daughter…used the five elements?" I asked.

"She did, but she died from the aftereffects and the trauma. Bringing all five elements together caused her to go mentally insane."

"Thank you…Hokage-sama…" I looked at Kakashi. My face in his mind looked void of any and all emotion.

Izumo noticed the difference too; he had seen my face turn ashen.

In his mind, the Hokage was formulating why I would ask such questions. He had a good idea of what was going on, but he needed to talk to my sensei to be sure.

"Izumo, Kotetsu, Iruka, Amaya, please exit my office. I have a private matter I need to discuss with Kakashi."

We did as he said. After I left his office, I began to leave, walking down the spiral staircase.

"Amaya!" a voice called behind me. It was Izumo, and he soon caught up to where I was. I gave him a smile, but there was no happiness behind it.

"What's wrong?" he asked. _Why did you ask these questions to the Hokage…what are you planning Amaya?_ He thought.

"Please, Izumo," I replied, turning to face him. "I promise you I am doing nothing evil, wicked, or traitorous…but many of these questions are just helping me unravel my past. I really would appreciate it if you didn't delve into all of this…"

He looked at me for a moment, assessing whether he could really trust me or not. Finally, he decided he could, and asked quietly, "So, are we still on for our date tonight? Or would you rather have some time to yourself?"

I thought about that for a moment, and realized that I really would like to be with Izumo-sama.

"Yes," I replied. "I'd actually really enjoy going on a date with you."

"Great, I'll come and pick you up around six thirty? Oh, and you should probably wear something dressier…" he trailed off.

"Got it Izumo-sama. I'll see you tonight."

As we parted ways, my thoughts trailed back to what the Hokage had told me. Kasumi's daughter had delved into the secret arts, which is why her mother's spirit was inside of me. Somehow, Kasumi's daughter had used the five elements, although no one since her had been able to do it. She went insane…

I found myself wandering back to Kakashi's apartment. I had wrapped his clothing, and I put the package by his door with a note thanking him for the night before. I told him to train Sasuke well, and that I would see him in a month.

Then, I went back to my own apartment and began to get ready for my date. I took a shower and then slipped into a simple black lace dress. It was tight-fitted, and went to mid-thigh. I put my hair down and let it fall into its natural waves, then did some makeup, and slipped on some dressy short wedge boots. I looked into the mirror, smiling at the way the dress hugged my curves (it showed off my butt really well), and how the boots elongated my legs. This was the first time I had worn the dress, and it made me feel a little self-conscious. It did, however, get my mind off of everything else I was worrying about.

A knock came to my door. I looked at the clock, and it was 6:10. Izumo was early.

I opened the door, smiling, and met Kakashi. He looked at me, speechless, and his visible eye appraised my form. I blushed the deepest red I have ever been, and asked him why he was there.

 _Woah…_ he thought.

"I received your note," he said, "and I wanted to come and speak with you. I didn't realize you would be going out…"

"Um…what did you want to talk about?" I asked hesitantly.

"I wanted to see how you were doing after what Hokage-sama told you."

"I'm…actually…not okay at all. I just need time to get away for a moment, and let my thoughts collect before I figure out what I am going to do."

"I see…" he trailed off. _She wants a distraction…Izumo…probably._ He sounded irritated, annoyed, and…quite frankly, disappointed. Disappointed in me, for obviously taking the easy way out of dealing with my issues, and disappointed in himself, that he wasn't the one with me tonight.

We stood in an awkward silence together. "Well," he continued, "if you ever need anything…you know where to find me." He was about to leave.

"Kakashi-sensei," I started, and took a step towards him. He paused. I paused. We were precariously close to each other, and I could feel his warm, sweet breath on my face through his mask. I forgot what I was going to say, and after a moment of being so close to him, I looked down suddenly and murmured a soft "Thank you."

He snapped back to himself and nodded his head, then left.


	14. Chapter 14

When the door closed, I realized I had been holding my breath. I let it out and sat down in a chair. Before I had the chance to process what had just happened, another knock came to my door. I opened it, this time to find the right man there, Izumo.

He was dressed in black pants, dress shoes, a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbows, and a black silk tie. He didn't have his head protector on, and _damn_ he looked good.

"…Wow…" was all he said as he looked at me. For the second time, I blushed, but I let him keep his thoughts.

"Are…are you ready to go?" I asked softly.

"Of course," he said, beginning to smile, "Especially when I have the most beautiful woman in Konoha by my side."

I grabbed a small black clutch and joined my handsome date. He kept looking at me like he couldn't believe I was his tonight.

We made small talk as we walked, and then he took my hand and led me into a restaurant. It happened to be one of the more upscale places in the village.

"Izumo, this place is so nice!" I said.

"I know. From what you said this morning, I thought you might need to get away from the ninja life for a moment, and I figured something like this would be a good change."

How was it that he could practically read _my_ mind?

"That's actually exactly what I need," I said, smiling at him.

"Great," he said.

We took our seats, and throughout dinner, I got a good idea of what Izumo was like. I had decided not to use my mind reading ability, because I wanted this night to be as authentic as possible. It happened to be the first date I had ever been on.

Izumo told me about his friendly rivalry with Kotetsu, and how they have literally been best friends since before they entered the Academy. Their families were friends before they were, and they grew up together, always trying to best the other one.

Izumo had a good childhood, but his father died in the line of duty, protecting the Hidden Leaf. After that, he swore that he would do anything to become a great shinobi, and realized that the best way to spend a life is to protect something you care about.

Throughout dinner, he kept making me laugh, and I honestly didn't even think about Kasumi, or what a mess my life was. Izumo made me feel so _normal._ The conversation flowed effortlessly—he and I discussed so many different things.

After dinner, we left the restaurant and started walking. As we headed towards the river, our hands brushed together. I looked at him, smiling, and he took my hand in his, interlacing his fingers with mine. It felt so _easy_ , like I was a normal person for once, someone whose world wasn't falling apart. It was pleasant and nice, holding his hand.

We reached an open field as the stars were just coming out.

"Come on," I said, letting go of his hand, kicking off my heels, and running into the field. He laughed and chased after me, catching me and lifting me off the ground in his arms, twirling me in a circle. He set me down and I ran off a few steps, breathing in the night air. Then I turned to him and called out,

"Catch me if you can!"

He immediately took off after me, and caught up to me when we reached the middle of the field. He reached out for my hand and grabbed it, but I turned awkwardly, trying to pull my hand away. I guess I used a little too much force, because he flew forward and fell. He didn't let go of my hand, so I fell too. He rolled on his back quickly and caught me in his arms. We were face to face, and both of our hearts were racing. I looked at his eyes, and he leaned his head forward and kissed me.

I felt the butterflies surface in my stomach and took a sharp intake of breath with surprise at how pleasant his lips felt touching mine. He broke off the kiss quickly, thinking he had done something wrong.

"I'm sorry," he promptly said. "I'm being a little bit forward…"

"No, not at all," I responded. "I was just caught off guard."

I looked at his lips, smiled to myself, and kissed him again. I started pushing myself up with my hands, but he wasn't ready to let go of the kiss yet, so he slid his arms around my waist and sat up, holding me in his arms. I put one of my hands on his chest and the other on his neck as I opened my mouth to let his tongue slide in. I eased myself into the kiss and he slowly went down on his back, returning us to the lying position we had started in.

After a few seconds I broke away from the kiss and started loosening his tie. His neck was beginning to sweat in the darkness. He turned us over, putting me on my back so that he was on top, and took off his tie altogether. My leg was at an awkward angle, and I moved it over so that I was straddling him. I unbuttoned the top few buttons on his shirt, and he began to kiss me again. My hands went in the collar of his shirt so that one was resting on his bare chest and the other was on his back. I surprised myself, however, by wanting more. I started unbuttoning his shirt again as he moved his kisses to my neck. When I got to the bottom, I pulled his dress shirt up from where it was tucked in his pants and he slipped off his shirt altogether.

When he sat up to take his shirt off, I realized that the bottom of my dress had ridden up to my hips, and I was still straddling his waist. I didn't know if he had noticed or not, but I could feel my cheeks turning pink.

I couldn't help but stare at his body. He was ripped, and when I touched his abs he shivered. I sat up and trailed my finger along his right side where he had a scar over his ribs.

"What's this from?" I asked quietly.

"Believe it or not, I had a fight with Kotetsu. He has a scar like this on his thigh."

"Damn…that would have been fun to watch…"

"It was like the fight Sakura and Ino had at the preliminaries…we were both perfectly matched."

We sat there in silence for a few moments. He was sitting on his knees, and my legs were around him. I put my arms around his neck and kissed him again, this time entering his mouth with my tongue. He leaned forward on his knees, propping himself up with one arm. The other hand rested just above my knee, and he moved his hand slowly up my leg until the tips of his fingers were just brushing the hem of my dress.

He laid me back down on the ground and then used both of his hands to slip my dress up further so that my underwear was exposed. His hands were on my hips, and he moved them upward until they were underneath my dress and around my waist. Then, he pulled me even closer towards him. As he pressed me closer, I could feel that he was hard.

I moved my hands towards his belt and started to undo it.

He pulled himself away from my kiss.

"No…" he rasped, and took my hands away from his belt.

"What?" I asked him, incredulous. Isn't this what all guys wanted? What was wrong?

"Just…not…" he stopped, his breathing still heavy.

I decided it was time to break my rule, and I read his mind. What I found was surprising.

Izumo wanted to have sex with me. He wanted very badly to have sex with me, but he didn't want me to think he was using me. He wanted to make sure I was ready, but even if I insisted tonight, he wouldn't go that far. Why?

Because he knew that I had been going through a lot. I had told him that I wanted to get my mind off of everything, but he wasn't going to push me. He thought that in my state right now, I'd be more likely to give in, and he was right. I had already gone further than I thought I would.

I sat up and pulled myself away from him, and slid my dress back down. He was still sitting on his knees, his chest heaving up and down. He took a couple moments, shook his head back and forth, and then said,

"I'm sorry, Amaya, but I just can't."

I picked up his shirt from off the ground and swung it around him, and he put his arms through. As we sat there in silence, I started buttoning his shirt for him.

"It's okay Izumo. I think I understand." I finished the top button and kissed him softly, and then grabbed his tie and put it in his hand. We both stood up and walked hand in hand to get our shoes, and then he took me home.

We got to my door, and he started to speak, to apologize again. I cut him off, saying,

"Stop, Izumo. You don't need to apologize. You're taking care of me…and that's worth more than anything else I could ask for."

He smiled at me, and I gave him a hug. I looked up at him and smiled, and then walked into my apartment.

I changed out of my dress and shoes and into my sleepwear, and then stepped out onto my porch area. I looked up into the sky and began to count the stars, something I hadn't done since I was a child.

I got up to one hundred, and then began thinking about what I had done that night. I liked Izumo. I really did. But what had I just done with him? To be perfectly honest, tonight, I had had my first kiss. My first kiss had almost turned into something else… and sadly enough, I had always imagined that first kiss with Kakashi.

Izumo was sweet, kind, a gentleman…everything anyone could ask for. He was right for me. I could never date Kakashi anyway…he was my sensei. There was only one difference. The electricity that I always felt around Kakashi…that was never there with Izumo.

"Oh Kakashi…you always seem to have the answers. What would you tell me if you knew about this?" I asked to the darkness. I almost expected him to answer…he was always there when I needed him.

But tonight I was met with silence.


	15. Chapter 15

My alarm clock went off early the next morning, and I smashed in the snooze button with disdain. The memory of my dream was escaping me, but I knew it had been something…shall we say…interesting…based on the fact that I had butterflies in my stomach upon consciousness. Reluctantly, I got up and packed, ready for a long day of traveling. I doubted Itachi was less than five hours from Konoha, and when I asked him where to meet, I found out my suspicions were correct.

 _Itachi! Where am I supposed to meet you for training?_

He showed me the place in his head.

 _It seems like you had fun last night,_ he mused, though clearly irritated.

 _Yeah, yeah, Itachi! Please save it for later. Besides, I could really use your advice._

 _I'm not about to give you advice on your personal issues, Amaya._

 _I'm not talking about my male problems…I'm talking about Kasumi!_

 _Right. Well, get here quickly and we'll talk before training._

I was already out of my apartment and walking towards Konoha's main gates. It was early, and the only people up were those on patrol.

My trip was an uneventful one, and I reached my destination at around two. We were training in a clearing in the woods, and I could hear the rushing of a river nearby. Itachi was already waiting for me, sitting at a small wooden table with two chairs, sipping tea. The teapot was on the table, and he poured me a cup before asking me to sit down. As I drank, I explained to him all about Kasumi and what I had learned, and what I had to do to free her.

"So you're telling me there's a strong possibility you could die," he said.

"Well, I don't really have too many options here," I replied.

"Well, you _could_ die, or you could just sacrifice that demon's freedom and be fine."

"Ha ha very funny. She wants to be free, Itachi, and as a matter of fact so do I. I want to have a family someday and not have to worry about her possibly hurting one of my children."

"But based on the past, chances are you'll either go insane or die," he stated matter-of-factly. "Besides…if you have children with all the guys you're chasing after…Kasumi's going to have a lot of options to choose from. So why not live and die peacefully?"

I was so angry with Itachi by this point. "Look, I know my love life is not something to be…proud of. Really. If you're trying to help then you should just stay out of it!"

He cocked his head sideways and looked at me curiously, and then became much more serious. "What I really want to know is…how did Kasumi acquire the use of all five elements if her daughter was the one to use it first? I can only imagine it could have happened during the sealing ceremony, but I've never heard of any sealing that powerful before." He sighed, finished his cup of tea, and stood up.

"Well, we can't do anything about that right now," he said. "Fight me."

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"Fight me. Before I can train you, I need to know how far you've come."

I stood up immediately. This would be interesting, since we both had access to the other's mind. I waved my hand across my body and mist began to flow in. Itachi turned on his Sharingan. If it became the Mangekyou, I was screwed. For now, I would have to fight from a distance.

"Good plan, but it's not going to work," came Itachi's voice. He was already behind me. I swung my body around, trying to hit him, but I came in contact with a log.

"Really?" I said under my breath. I hadn't even seen that one coming. I sensed him a little bit away, and began to read his thoughts. He was waiting me out, to see what I would do. Since he could see _my_ mind, I had to come up with a different tactic, but make sure he didn't know.

I made two water clones and put them below ground, planning on having them surround and attack him from below. When they were in position, I attacked him from above. He knew the trap that I had laid out, but at the last minute I switched my tactics, coming up with something completely new and on the spot. He was taken off guard, but even then, I was no match for his Sharingan. We were pretty evenly matched with hand-to-hand combat. I was fighting purely with my body, because Kakashi had trained me to react that way. In this fight, mind and body separation was key.

 _Nice work,_ Itachi thought. I smiled, but I still couldn't get an upper hand because his Sharingan could see my every movement.

After a while, we both broke off the fighting, both of us breathing heavily. He decided it was time to change his tactics, but I wasn't about to let that happen. I thought he was about to use the Mangekyou, so I closed my eyes.

"You can't fight with your eyes closed…" he told me. He had made more clones and they were coming forward, ready to attack. I fended them off easily.

"Too easy," I said, and then rushed towards him to attack.

 _How are you doing this?_ He asked me in his mind, and then took a closer look.

My eyes were closed, but his were open, and I was watching myself through his head. Therefore, I could still know exactly what to do by seeing what looked like an opposite version of myself. If I moved my left hand, I saw my right side move, and vice versa.

"Not bad," he told me. I started adding fire to my palms when I attacked him, and I could feel him trying to get away from the burn.

"But not good enough…" he said, and in one motion swept my feet from under me. I fell hard and my eyes popped open, and I was staring at Kakashi.

"What the _hell_ are you doing, Amaya!" he yelled at me.

"Ka…Kakashi!" I turned my head from side to side, looking for Itachi. He must have left when he sensed Kakashi coming.

Wait…but why hadn't _I_ sensed my sensei? Was I too involved in the battle?

"You're a disappointment. I never said it before, but really, training with Uchiha Itachi?"

I had never seen Kakashi so angry before. I started to get up, but he was on top of me instantly, holding a kunai to my neck.

"You're a traitor, Momochi Amaya, and there's no place for traitors on this earth!"

Kakashi…? Not even giving me a chance to explain? That was new.

"It's a good thing Izumo saw you leaving the village this morning…he alerted me and we followed you together."

"Izumo-sama is here?!" I exclaimed.

Izumo stepped out from behind the shadows, anger and hatred on his face.

"I can't believe it…consider us done, Amaya. Any feelings I had for you are crushed now. You deserve to die, what with the decisions you've made."

He took a kunai and stabbed it into my hand, pinning me to the ground. Then, he did the same with my other hand. I flinched at the pain.

"Do it, Kakashi," he said.

Kakashi stood up and began to use the chidori. My eyes went wide, and then I realized what was happening.

I had fallen for an extremely good genjutsu. I ripped my hands from the ground, punching my sensei in the face. He flew backwards, but Izumo was already attacking. I kicked him sideways and pinned him to a tree.

"Where are you Itachi!" I called out. I blinked, and Itachi was the one pinned against the tree, bloody, where I had hit Izumo.

"Alright! Enough…" he said. I let go of him, but he punched me in the stomach, forcing blood out of my mouth.

 _Damn!_ It was still a genjutsu.

I was on my hands and my knees, breathing hard and still coughing up blood.

"We've got work to do," said Itachi. "Sleep tonight, and meet me here at dawn to begin training. You've gotten stronger, but you're still weak. I'll see you in the morning."

He walked away, leaving me alone, still bloody and sore.

I stood up and limped back to the table we had talked at. I grabbed my bag and pulled out some blankets, and then noticed that Itachi had left some bandages and ointments on the table for me.

"Hmph…so you do care, Itachi…" I said to myself, and then walked to the river and began to clean my wounds.

The next morning, Itachi woke me up…the sun had yet to rise.

"What…what time is it?" I asked him.

"Early. But you need food."

There was fruit and bread for breakfast, and then we began to train.

"There are a few things I want to show you," Itachi said. "These will not only help you prepare for the Chuunin exam, but also for your mission to free Kasumi."

So he _did_ want me to free her?

"You've already experimented with mixing elements. We are going to hone that skill, because you'll need it if you want to do what that spirit asks you to."

"Mixing…elements?"

"Don't play dumb, Amaya, think about it. When you grew plants, you mixed earth and water. When you created hurricanes, you mixed water and wind. There are countless ways to mix elements, and countless possibilities once you know the basics."

I thought about it, and realized that he was right. I wasn't using my abilities to their fullest. Throughout that day, he forced me to think about the different ways I could mix elements and put the new abilities to use.

The day after, I actually started working on the new jutsus. We began mixing water and air, creating more than just hurricanes. Itachi showed me how to create ice by freezing the water with high-speed wind. Unlike the raw elements, however, I had to use hand signs to change states of matter, such as creating ice from water, or pulling vapor from the air. It was the same concept I had used before to make my water clones, but harnessing my chakra with hand signs made it easier.

By creating ice needles, I could catch my opponent with element made senbon. I experimented with all types of precipitation: rain, hail, sleet, snow, you name it. I was painfully reminded of Haku and my brother by the time we stopped. Itachi was aware of what I felt, and sat down with me to talk.

"You really don't know how scared I was that you were dead," he said, referring to the fact that I had cut him off from my mind way back when.

"Itachi? Scared? Doesn't seem too likely," I replied, joking with him.

He cracked a smile. "I think I'm warming up to you, Amaya. It's only been four years…"

"This is definitely different, from way back—"

"When we weren't friends?" he continued.

I paused. "Does that mean we're friends now?" I asked, incredulously.

"No."

"Oh."

"But we're acquaintances."

"Whatever you say, Itachi."

"On another note, you picked up those jutsus quickly today."  
"Yeah…the only thing I think I really need to worry about is remembering the hand signs…I've never had to think about that before."

"You'll pick it up quickly. We still have three more weeks."

"Four," I reminded him. "Right?"

"No, because you need to have time to get back to Konoha and rest before you fight. Izumo probably misses you too…" he trailed off, giving me a smirk. Then, he left for the night.

That evening, as I was lying on top of my blankets and staring at the stars, I began thinking about Kasumi. I still had so many questions about the elements…and how likely it was that I would go insane. I severely didn't want to go insane.

My mouth widened into a yawn and sleep started to overtake me. My mind dwelled on Kasumi, hoping she would visit me in my dreams once again.

She didn't, and I was awoken the next morning by Itachi.

"You've mixed wind and water successfully, now it's time to practice with water and fire. Boil water."

Didn't seem too much like training to me…but I did as he said. I created a bowl of rock, pulled moisture from the air to fill it, and then created a fire and set the bowl above the flame. In a few minutes, it was boiling.

"Too slow," Itachi said. "Find a new way to do it."

I gave him a strange look and then tried again, this time pulling water from the plants around me. They withered once I removed the liquid. While controlling the water with one hand, I formed a hand sign with the other and began heating the water from the inside. As I increased the chakra amount, the water began to bubble and steam.

"Good…" Itachi said. "Now fire and earth."

I tried the same technique with a large rock, but it ended up exploding in my face. I tried again, this time focusing on heating the rock in a uniform manner, rather than just on the inside. After what seemed like a million tries, I started to understand what I was to do. As the rock began to turn red, I formed a hand sign and the rock turned molten. I could then manipulate it like I did water because of the liquid-like substance. As I stretched it longer and shorter, I heard Itachi's mind.

 _Fascinating…Deidara would love to meet this one…_

"Deidara?" I asked him.

"He makes…art…if you could call it that. Maybe one day I'll introduce you two…"

From his mind, I found out that Deidara was a part of the Akatsuki with Itachi. He used exploding clay as a weapon.

"Hey, Itachi? What _does_ the Akatsuki do, anyway?" I dared to ask. The only members I knew of were Itachi, Hoshigaki, Tobi (who, Itachi told me later, wasn't technically a part of the organization), Orochimaru (who had recently left the organization), and Konan. From what I knew, the group was nomadic and was rarely all together with one another. They each had partners, but I had no idea what they were after or why. That part of Itachi's mind had always been well hidden.

"That's really something you don't need to know…yet," he replied. "We're done for today," he said abruptly. "Unfortunately, I'll be gone for the next couple of days. Practice this on your own, I expect to see some improvement and something new when I get back."

"Yes sir," I replied. It was late afternoon when he left, so I caught some fish for dinner and practiced throughout the evening.

For the next couple days, I set about thinking of and producing new elemental hybrids. I created a dust storm as well as scorching heat. I realized that when trained, I was a complete threat to all of humanity. By controlling all of the elements, I could control pretty much…everything.

Everything organic made of earth, water, fire, wind…I could basically control nature, since everything was made up of these. That gave me an idea…maybe a sick idea, but an idea more powerful than any I had thought of before.

The human body is made up of seventy-five percent water…the guy Dosu, who fought Chouji at the Chuunin preliminaries had said that. If that was the case, why couldn't I control _people?_ I wouldn't control them for my own means, but every ninja has an ace up the sleeve, and this could just be one of the many.

At that moment, a squirrel bounded through the field. I decided to try, and focused on the water in the squirrel's body. It froze. I could feel the water flowing throughout the squirrel's body…within the brain, the organs, and the muscles. I used the water in the muscles to move the squirrel around, but by this time I could tell it was freaked out, so I let it go. It collapsed.

I let out a gasp and ran towards the animal. It was struggling on the ground, trying to get away from me. The water in the creature was still flowing the way I had left it, and the squirrel was trying to go the other direction. After a couple of seconds, the limbs started moving again and the rodent dashed away. I knew I had traumatized it.

I sat down hard in the grass, thinking to myself. If I were to learn this, I would first need basic medical ninjutsu skills, or at least knowledge of the human anatomy.

The plants around me were all growing tall, and I began to suck the water out of them. They began to wither, but before they were dead, I placed the water back in them and they were back to normal. Then I grew them with chakra, until I was surrounded with vines. It was strange…because in a sense, I could give life and take it away. I didn't like the sound of that. No human should have this type of power. What if I messed up? I thought back to what Kakashi had told me before.

Making a mistake is another way of learning. What if…my mistake involved another human's life?

I couldn't do it. This was one jutsu that I wouldn't learn. I wasn't heartless enough.

 _Interesting…_ Itachi thought. He had been watching me this entire time. He was always invading my privacy. Then a thought occurred to me. Why did I never know what he was doing?

I closed my eyes and went into his mind. He was completely aware of what I was doing, but couldn't do anything about it. He was at a meeting with the Akatsuki, and they were discussing the jinchuuriki. Apparently they were searching out the nine Bijuus. What exactly was this organization up to?

Through Itachi's eyes, I saw all the members I knew, and apparently they were answering to one person in particular, a guy named Pain. He was addressing Itachi about the nine-tailed fox and it's jinchuuriki. Kisame spoke up and said that they had located the demon in Konoha, and were planning on making contact with its host.

In Itachi's mind, I knew they were talking about Naruto. Then, Konan brought up my name, asking how training me was going. Itachi replied that I was becoming powerful, though some hassles were beginning to show themselves. He meant that I had yet to be able to use all five elements…and that I was being a nuisance inside of his head.

 _What the hell Itachi?_ I asked him. _Am I really only a part of a bigger plan? Is this what has been happening the entire time?_

 _Don't ask now. I'll meet you tomorrow morning in the forest…we'll discuss this._

He sure knew how to keep his cool under pressure, but I could tell he was angry. I was clearly unwanted at this meeting.

"Will she be ready in time?" asked Konan.

"I believe so. She must go through the Chuunin exam first, to test her powers, and then we can decide what to do," Itachi replied.

Ready for what? I left his mind and mentally prepared myself for my talk with Itachi.

The next day, I was up and awake before Itachi arrived. When he got there, there was immediate tension between us.

"What do you want with me?!" I asked him. "Am I really just a part of this plan of yours? I am a human, not a tool. I thought that you, out of anyone, would understand that by now." I was thinking about Haku and Zabuza, and how my brother had used Haku purely as a tool until he died.

"You're not an item. But in order to succeed, the Akatsuki needs your help."

"I'm not willing to give it."

"I don't think you understand. I'm not supposed to disclose this information to you just yet, but the Akatsuki wants to make you a member."

"And what if I don't want to be one?"

"Then I'm supposed to kill you."

I paused for a second. "Well then," I began, "I guess I'll just have to be stronger than you when that day comes."

Itachi burst out laughing. I was shocked! He had laughed and snickered at me before, but never like this! The worst part was that I was being completely serious!

"You think you're any match for the Mangekyou? Really…there's only one person who could ever defeat me." He began to speak more seriously.

"Sasuke?" I asked. "That's why you left him alive?"

"Yes…Sasuke…but the reason why I left him alive is more complicated than that. Trust me, he'll seek for the power to defeat me."

"He already is." I thought about Orochimaru's cursed seal on Sasuke's neck.

"Hmph..."

We sat in silence for a second. "Alright Amaya, show me what you've done in the past few days!"

I proceeded to demonstrate the new forces of nature that my mind could conceive, and he watched me with a single expression.

When I was finished, he spoke up. "Amaya, I'm quite curious as to what your elemental affinity is, without Kasumi."

I gave him a confused look, and he continued to explain.

"Every ninja is predisposed to a certain element. They may be able to become proficient in every type, but usually are extremely strong in one or two types. I'm curious as to what your affinity would be if you didn't house a spirit like Kasumi. Ninjutsu requires hand signs, but because of the gifts you have, you can get by through willing the elements to do what you want. If you are to somehow set Kasumi free and survive, you'll need to know the basics. No more just getting by because you are special."

"…Okay?"

"Here," he said, and pulled out a piece of paper.

"What's this for?"

"It's a special type of paper, from trees specially grown with chakra. Infuse it with your own chakra, and see what happens. Be careful that it's not Kasumi's."

I closed my eyes, concentrating on separating my own chakra from Kasumi's. Then I touched the piece of paper and transferred my own chakra to it. It crumpled up and became soaked with water.

"You're predisposed to water and lightning," Itachi told me. "Water makes sense, because of your bloodline, but it's strange that the other is lightning, since you can't seem to use that element at all."

I paused to think about what he had just said.

"Hey, Itachi, I know I'm strong enough for the Chuunin exam. I really don't think I need to worry about winning…will you do a favor for me?"

He gave me a queer look. "What kind of favor?" he asked.

"Accompany me to the Village Hidden in the Mist, to help me acquire Isoko's lost writings."

He raised his eyebrows, surprised at my request.

"Itachi, we do have three weeks, and you can train me on the way."

"Alright. If you're confident about this."

"I am," I said.

"Then we leave after lunch."


	16. Chapter 16

He went to tell Hoshigaki that he was leaving…the ex-member of the Mist's Seven Swordsmen got a kick out of the destination. We set out for the four-day journey that would end in the place of my birth.

Upon arrival, we went to a small restaurant near the entrance of the town. I remembered it from my childhood, and walked in without fear. Before, I was always thrown out of places like this, considered as the "demon child."

The waitress was older, and didn't think twice about serving us because of our head protectors. Itachi was in a black cloak with red clouds anyway, and wasn't extremely recognizable. We ordered green tea and dango, and when it came, Itachi thanked the waitress.

"Yes, thank you," I echoed, and looked at the woman.

She gasped and dropped the teapot she was holding. It smashed on the floor, wetting our feet with the hot liquid. Then, she slowly backed away from our table, her visage seething with hatred.

"You!" she snarled. "Get out of this restaurant!"

Her husband burst out of the kitchen with a large knife in his hand, determined to end the commotion he had heard. I looked at him too, and he also dropped the knife in his hand. It clattered on the wooden ground.

"I think it's time we move on," I told Itachi. I pulled a few coins out of my pocket to pay for our meal, and left them on the table with our untouched food. Itachi stood, and silently we stepped out of the restaurant.

Itachi and I continued to walk down the main road. Everywhere I looked, people froze, recognizing the unmistakable eyes they had known to abhor. Children were moved inside, men eyed us warily, and women gave us dirty looks.

"Not a thing has changed…" I mentioned to Itachi.

"No one is lining up to kill you. That's the reception I would receive if I went back to Konoha."

"They're too afraid, as they should be. I know a place we can go."

I took him to an empty building near a slum. I kicked the door in, entering a room full of cobwebs, a few meager blankets in a corner, a broken chair, and a small table.

"Welcome home," I told him sullenly.

"You lived here?" he asked.

"For seven years of my life, yes. I was alone when I hit the age of six. When my parents died, some of their good friends took care of me. When they found out what I could do…I was beaten and kicked out of the house. I literally crawled here and slept with the rats that night."

I lifted the now moth eaten blankets and piled them aside. Then, I lifted one of the floorboards and pulled out a small silver colored box. Upon opening it, I took out a discolored photograph, a pen and a diary, and a small silver and blue necklace, which I immediately put around my throat. It had been my mother's, passed down from generation to generation. The photograph was of my parents, taken after I was born but before my brother killed them. He was nowhere in the picture. I flipped through the pages of the diary…it was the paper on which I had taught myself to write. As I set them aside, I reached back underneath the floorboards and pulled out a stack of newspapers, which I had used to teach myself how to read. I reached in one more time and pulled out a headband with the insignia of the Hidden Mist.

"What's that from?" asked Itachi. He had been silently watching me the entire time.

"I stole it…from the Academy here. I thought that since I wasn't allowed to be a ninja in this village, I would take one and pretend. I used to wear it in the forest when I tried to teach myself how to fight." I smiled to myself. "Do you see the bloodstains? Three Academy graduates found me one day, wearing this. They beat me until I was bloody, and took the headband from me. Their sensei was watching us the entire time. Apparently, it was their test to become Genin. They thought they had won, but I turned and attacked them, somehow managing to get this back. It was important to me, because I wanted to be recognized as a ninja."

"You went through a lot here…didn't you?" Itachi asked. He was seeing and feeling every memory that began to pour through my head.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to make you see all this pain. I shouldn't be thinking about how the past has hurt me…just how it has made me stronger today." I smiled at him. "Let's go. We only have a few days to find out about Isoko."

 _You always seem to be able to look at the bright side…_ Itachi thought fondly.

"Before we go…" Itachi started, "We need to make a few changes."

He took his cloak off and put it on me, and then gave me the hat he had been wearing. I breathed in his scent deeply. It was earthy, and I could recognize the faint smell of pine and cloves.

"This will keep you from being recognizable. Now, give me that headband." He put it on himself, and we walked out of my old bedroom and back onto the streets.

He was right; we received no more glares from people on the street, and we were able to get a room at one of the oldest standing inns in the village.

"I hope you don't mind sharing a bed," he said as we turned into our room.

"Nope. We have too many things to do over the next few days for me to care." I hung up his cloak on a coat rack in the corner as he raised an eyebrow at me and shook his head.

"I know what you're thinking. Literally," I started. "And yes, I also wonder what Izumo-sama would think if he knew I was sleeping with you. And by that I mean _just_ sleeping. And why do you always bring up Izumo and Kakashi!? Are you…dare I say…jealous?" I asked, looking at him expectantly.

"Hell no." He took off the Mist headband and settled down on one side of the bed. "I'm just trying to figure out who you really care for. _That's_ the real mystery. None of this demon stuff."

I laid down on the other side of the bed, staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.

"Who _do_ I care for, Itachi?" A thought crossed my mind.

"Oh no," he said, "No way am I answering that question."

"Come on!" I said, exasperated. "Give me a little help here. Seriously. If you were in my position, what would you do?"

"Hmph. Well. If I were a woman, which I'm not, and if I were in love with two men, which I am most definitely not, I would pick the stronger of the two. The one who would protect me, no matter what he knew about my past. The one who would love me, no matter what I have to do, no matter what my secrets are, and who I could go to for anything."

"Geez, Itachi," I said, turning away from him. "I didn't think you knew anything about love."

"I don't. I'm just thinking from a woman's point of view."

"Well. Don't you just know all the answers," I said sarcastically. But really, what he had just said made me think. I didn't love Izumo. It was plain and simple, right in front of me. Being with him felt like any relationship should…it had friendship and communication…but I didn't love him. At least, not the way I loved Kakashi. With him, I felt passion, honesty, and I knew I could count on him. I felt happy and content just being around him. The only thing was…I just didn't want to have to break Izumo's heart. What we had done the night before I left…all of that was a mistake. He wasn't a mistake himself, but what I had done with him was. I was confused, and I was leading him on…and he had known that.

"I don't love him," I said under my breath.

"Amaya." Itachi interrupted my thought process. He hadn't been listening to my thoughts, but was rather trying to process his own. "Amaya…tell me your fears."

I sat up and looked at him, confused. "Really?"

"Yes. I want to know your fears." He was staring through glazed eyes, and I didn't even know if he was actually listening.

I let out a sigh and settled myself back down on the bed.

"Well…my greatest fear is that I'll lose the ones I love, and that my mistakes will be what kills them. I'm afraid that I'll die without actually being able to live. I'm afraid that I'll love the wrong person and never know what it is to be truly happy, and I'm afraid that the ones I love will turn against me."

He didn't answer me. Instead, he turned his body so he was facing me.

"Do you think I'll betray you, Amaya?"

"…I…I honestly don't know, Itachi." I turned to face him too. "You've always been there…given, you've either been helping me or laughing at me…but you're mind is always so mysterious. It's hard for me to know."

His dark eyes never left mine as the thoughts running through his head weighed his millions of options.

"What are you thinking, Itachi?" I asked.

"Don't you know?"

"Yes…but I want to hear it."

He smiled. "I…I've never felt the need to _help_ someone like this before. There's something about you, though, that makes me want to be different. Like I could have a life outside of the one I live. I never believed that killing my clan was a mistake, but being around you makes me feel emotions I haven't felt since I was a child."

He took my hand and clasped it in his. "I don't know what the future brings. It will hold death, of that I am certain, but I wouldn't ever want to lose you. Being connected to you…watching your thoughts, the way your mind works…seeing you grow, it's changed the way I see some things." He swallowed. "But I can't be perceived as weak. Not to the Akatsuki. I can't be perceived as one who can love. Not now, not after what I've given to this organization. I'd be as good as dead if I changed anything now."

"Itachi—," I started, searching his eyes.

"What if you don't choose me?" he asked, continuing the thought that was running through my head. "I don't know. I wouldn't be happy, but I haven't been happy in a long time. My life isn't the one I want for you. At least, not unless you choose it."

"What would I have to do…to join the Akatsuki?" I asked hesitantly.

"It depends from person to person and situation to situation…and they will try hard to get you to join." He laughed. "I don't exactly know what I'll do when that time comes."

 _For some reason, I think I care about you,_ he thought.

I smiled and closed my eyes as his lips came in contact with my forehead. We fell asleep holding hands.


	17. Chapter 17

We awoke in the exact same position. I opened my eyes first, and slowly moved my hands from his grasp. He opened his eyes when I sat up.

"What are we planning for today?" he asked, his voice deep, filled with remnants of sleep and of the morning.

"I'm not sure. I figured we could start by trying to trace Kasumi's family line…follow where they lived and where Isoko did her research. Then maybe we can find out something about Kaya. We'll need access to all of that information though, which means we'll have to get to the main administration offices, and probably close to the Mizukage."

He stood up and put on the Hidden Mist head protector, then motioned for me to put his cloak back on.

"Let's go," he said.

We wandered through town towards the main administration building. Shops were just beginning to open and ninja were stepping out of their homes, ready for missions. As we reached the entrance of the building, we were stopped by two official looking shinobi.

"We've never seen the likes of you before, and yet you wear our home's symbol on your forehead. State your purpose."

"We have an important meeting with the Mizukage," Itachi said. "It's imperative that we not be late."

"The Mizukage has no scheduled meetings today," said the taller of the two.

In fact, in their minds, they didn't actually know that. I spoke up.

"I'm sure the Mizukage has business that subordinates don't know about. I also know that the Kage of the Bloody Mist won't be happy should we tell him who made us _late_."

The two ninja looked at each other, uncertain, and then they let us pass. We stepped into the building. It was extremely official, with signs going every which way. Their buildings were much more modern than the ones back in Konoha. I saw a sign that pointed to the "Records Room." Itachi saw it too, and we walked toward that door, but of course, it was locked.

"Wait here," Itachi said. He went back around the corner and came back about five minutes later with a key.

"How did you…?" I began.

"He's unconscious. They won't find him either."

The door opened smoothly and we went in, locking it behind us. Before us were rows and rows of file cabinets with names from every major village in the five great countries.

"Do you know Kasumi's surname?" he asked.

"No. We have to start with Momochi and work our way back."

It was a daunting task, but we quickly found the Momochi name and started working. Our file was large, because it listed every single name that my brother had killed during his massacre. It contained information on our parents and information on me. I was presumed alive, but missing, and I was even listed on a couple of hit lists. Wonderful. I pulled the file.

"What are you doing?" Itachi asked.

"With the rate people are walking by, our best bet is to find the files and take them, piecing them together later. It's one of the few nice things I'll do for this village. They want to eradicate my family line? I'll start by erasing it from their records."

Thankfully, all of the records were well kept and in pristine condition, and we found Kaya about three generations before me. Her file was large as well. I pulled it and put it on top of the Momochi file.

It was then easy to find Kaimu, because he and Kaya had the same surname, and then we found Isoko. We pulled both of them.

"Do you want to search for Kasumi's file?" Itachi asked.

"If we had time, I would. But someone's coming and we need to get these back to where we can examine them."

At that moment, we heard movement at the door, as it started to be unlocked. We grabbed the files and took a stance at either side of the door. When it opened, I hit the woman who entered on the back of the head and she fell, unconscious.

"You're almost as heartless as me," mentioned Itachi.

"You wish," I replied, smirking. "I can definitely still hear my heartbeat." In fact, it was beating faster than normal. I wanted to be out of here, and quickly.

We made our way back to the front of the building and out without anyone noticing what had happened.

"They'll realize something is wrong. We can't stay in this town," I said nervously.

"I know."

We made our way to the entrance of the village and to the outskirts of town just as commotion broke out behind us. We began to run and in a good amount of time reached the beaches.

"We've got to find a hiding place."

"Hiding place, check," I said. Then, I created an underground cavern, complete with a bedroom and a living space.

"You've gotten good at this," Itachi commented.

"Yeah, well, you've shown me that finding out how powerful I am is really just a test of my imagination. Frankly, I'm impressed too."

We quickly got to work, scanning and reading every inch of the files we had taken. Soon it was evening, and we got some sleep. We began working again the next day, just as vigorously as before. What we found lined up perfectly with what I had already been told.

Kaya's file went in depth about betrayal, working with dark forces, and a detailed description of her death. All of the evil was a lie, of course, a projection of hate from the village. Her entire home was burned, along with her books and all of her belongings. Her children were mistreated, but there was nothing about the writings of Isoko.

Kaimu's file was detailed about his journey to other villages, and how he was trying to get rid of "the beast." The village made him into a hero, and he claimed to have locked Kasumi away for good. How little he knew…

I was reading through Isoko's file when I actually found something.

"Hey, Itachi! This says that Isoko used to leave the village for days at a time…but that she didn't go far. She disappeared into the sea. They watched her once, and she literally walked into the sea and didn't come out…but no one was able to follow her. We have to find this place."

"Then we'll start there."

We left the cavern and reached the ocean, the mist began sweeping in quickly.

"Good, this will hide us."

I took Itachi's arm in mine, and together we stepped into the cold water. Except, we didn't feel it. I was moving the water around our feet so that we were walking on dry sand with an air bubble around us at all times. We went farther until the tops of our heads would have been covered with water. I was constantly sending out and bringing in fresh air so we could breathe underneath the water.

"Keep your eyes open," I said. "This cove could be anywhere."

We walked deeper and deeper for about fifteen minutes, until the sea around us was dark. I couldn't see anything beyond what was underneath our feet. I was about to tell Itachi that this might be pointless, but then he stopped.

"There it is," he said. He was looking to his right into the darkness. "There's a wall seeping with chakra about fifty meters away. It's sealed, but I'm sure you can find out how to open it."

We reached the wall and I brought in more air from the surface to make our bubble bigger. Then, I began searching the wall. There was a symbol on the front with the kanji for 'lightning,' and near it were four grooves in the wall, forming a circle. I took some earth from the sea floor and formed it into a rock, placing it next to one of the grooves. It disappeared and the kanji for that element appeared.

I smiled to myself. "Got it," I said. I did the same with water, fire, and wind, and once the five kanji were in place, I heard a click on the opposite side of the wall. I put my hand in the center of the five symbols and pushed while using some chakra, and just like that, the door swung open.

We stepped inside the dark cavern and the door shut behind us. We could hear the water crashing down outside, where the pocket of air had been. I lit the area with fire, and both of us gasped at the sight that greeted us.

It looked like a palace.

"Woah," I muttered under my breath. "Kaya really did something to this place."

"She had to, since she was so despised in the village…I wonder if anyone else knew about this."

"Who's there!" we heard a woman's voice shout. We were immediately on our guard, and I searched the woman's mind. She stepped out of the darkness. She was old, covered in wrinkles, but with a thick head of white hair. She was short and was carrying a lantern. When she looked at us, I saw that her eyes were also blue. Unlike mine, they were icy and cold.

"How did you get in here?!" she exclaimed.

"We used the front entrance," I replied. "Who are you?"

Her eyes went wide. "No one has used that door since…my mother…"

"Wait!" I said. "Was your mother…Kaya?"

She looked down, and a painful memory flashed through her head. "Yes…"

"My name is Momochi Amaya, one of Kaya's descendants. We came here hoping we could find some information on Kasumi and the five elements."

"That information is what killed my mother."

"Please, I know that it's painful. What your mother knew, though, could possibly save my life."

 _That's a lie…this information could kill you…_ Itachi thought. I disregarded him.

"My sister and I had to watch her die, how they tortured her. They beat us until we were close to death," the woman said carefully. She was looking at Itachi and me, judging our reaction to what she was saying, seeing if she could trust us. She thought that we might be using Kasumi's power for evil, and was fully ready to die while withholding the information I sought.

 _Itachi, play along. This is the only way it will work,_ I told him. Then I took his hand in mine and stared into his eyes. I used the water element to form fake tears and turned back towards the woman.

"I know that when I die, Kasumi will choose one of my children…I can't let that happen…" I touched my stomach gently, acting as if I were pregnant. "We need to know if there's a way to set her free…" I whispered.

My act worked. I felt terrible for lying, but the only way the woman was going to give us information is if I played close to her heart. You see, the memories flashing through her head hadn't just been of her mother. After she saw the effects of Kasumi's powers, she vowed that she would never have children in order to save them from that fate. She had been in love but refused to marry. The man that she loved married her sister instead, and they had their own children, one of whom married my father. They in turn had my brother and I. The rest ended up dead. The pain she had felt from his betrayal was overwhelming. I had to ally with those emotions.

Her eyes softened, and she walked toward us. Itachi played his part and put his arm around me as she spoke.

"My name is Yoko," she said softly. "I can show you what you need to know. Please, follow me."


	18. Chapter 18

She took us to an empty room with a large wall. It had the same type of lock on it as the entrance did.

"Please, you'll have to assist," Yoko told me. "The last time I entered this chamber, my mother was alive. I remember the day she locked it, before she died." I used four of the elements to open the wall and we came to another chamber with a lone table in the center. On that table was a single, large book, dusty with time.

"All the information is in this book," she said. "Please glean the information you need to know." She left the chamber and the doors closed behind her.

I opened the book and began taking in all of the information. Kaya's handwriting was clear, and Itachi read over my shoulder.

It was as we suspected: the sealing technique required the use of all five elements. Kasumi's daughter, Amaya, taught herself to use one ninjutsu from each element, and in this way sealed Kasumi's spirit into her own child. This was an unheard of feat, and has never been achieved since. It is still unknown as to how she was able to do it.

 _Kakuzu…_ I heard Itachi think in his mind. I paid him no heed at the moment…I was too busy trying to learn from the book.

Kasumi's spirit somehow sucked the elements and the chakra from her daughter, causing her to go insane. Amaya lost all ability to perform jutsu, and the elements sealed within Kasumi were kept for her own use. The sealing technique was easy enough to set up, but perfect timing had to be in place for the ceremony, and the aftereffects were terrible.

I turned the page and read about the releasing ceremony. All five elements had to be in place again, but they had to be Kasumi's natural powers. They couldn't be another set of five jutsus, they way Amaya set up, because we were trying to reverse the process. Thus it was imperative that I learn how to use the lightning element. I turned the page again, and found what I was looking for. How to use lightning.

Out of the five elements, it was the most powerful, because Kasumi's daughter had been predisposed to it. Somehow, however, it became locked away when Kasumi was sealed.

Isoko's writing delved into the basis behind the five elements and how to use them. Though the will of the person is really what controls these powers, each element is strongest with certain emotions. Fire came with anger, hatred, and passion, all strong emotions. With water, there was calm, serenity, and relaxation. That made sense, because the more levelheaded I was in fighting situations, the more able I was to control and use water. Wind came with anxiety and excitement, and earth with determination, courage, and perseverance. Lightning was a little different, because the emotions were hard to single out. The words Isoko used were resolve, strength, forgiveness, and love.

While strength was easy enough to figure out, the other three required something more.

"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" I asked Itachi.

"No…never. What do the next pages hold?"

I flipped through them, and they contained day-by-day information on how Isoko tried to evoke lightning. She tried many methods, some that I had thought might work, but didn't. Finally, the pages stopped after an entry where she was able to feel it throughout her body. She had died after that.

I closed the book and stood up. There was nothing more we could gain from the writing. As we stepped outside of the room, Itachi and I were immediately on our guard. Facing us were five ninja, including Yoko.

"I'm sorry Amaya, but your journey ends here. You and I are the last of this wretched line, and if I kill you, Kasumi will cease to exist as well. She will no longer be a threat to this world!"

"If she leaves Amaya, she'll just enter you," Itachi said calmly.

"That's why I plan on dying today too." Yoko replied completely determined.

Itachi stepped in front of me. _Let me take care of this,_ he thought. In seconds, only Yoko was left standing. I went up to her.

"Why, Yoko? Why let us see the information before you tried to kill us?"

She was gasping for breath, clutching a wound Itachi had given her. "To be honest, I was going to let you leave. But if you failed in setting Kasumi free, I wouldn't forgive myself for not having stopped you when I had the chance. You'll never escape though…I've alerted the Mist Village that you're here. You won't make it…out…alive…"

Her eyes closed and her breathing stopped. We stood, staring at the bodies in silence.

 _Open your mind…we'll need it to get out of here_.

I did as Itachi said and sensed people above us. Apparently we were underneath a cliff, and it had a secret entrance from above as well.

"We'll have to leave the way we came." I listened for a second longer. "Itachi! We have to hurry! They're planning on blowing the entire cliff up!"

We ran towards the front door, but not before the first explosion started. Rocks started to fall around us, and water began to drip from a crack in the wall.

"Itachi, this may be rough. Please, hold on to me." He did as I asked and placed his arms around my waist. As the second explosion went off, I was already moving my hands and forcing the earth to surround us. We were soon surrounded by earth and darkness.

"I think we're safe," I said.

A third explosion went off, and we were blown sideways as the rock around us cracked and water came rushing through. I quickly formed air bubbles around our heads and began to swim, but Itachi's hands fell from around my waist. I looked back at him—he was bleeding from his head and his eyes were closed. He had hit a rock when we were thrown, and now he was unconscious. I put my arm around his body and began to swim out into the open ocean. We were running out of oxygen quickly, so I pulled in large bubbles of air from above to surround us. Before it could reach us, yet a fourth explosion went off and forced a current of water that pushed us farther out to sea. It was all I could do to keep the air around our heads.

As if that weren't enough, the blood from Itachi's head was sinking into the water, forming a trail behind us. I saw something large swim by in the darkness, and I knew that sharks had found us. We were still far from the surface of the water, and I knew we wouldn't make it with the amount of air I had given us. Itachi's breathing was already beginning to get shallow, as was mine. Attacking would take too much of my energy, so I did what I had to.

I closed my eyes, feeling the presence of the sharks' energy, feeling the water flow in and out of their gills, in and out of their bodies. One shark began to attack, swimming straight for Itachi's body. I opened my eyes, letting the saltwater burn in them, and looked straight at it. It turned at the last minute, avoiding Itachi. There were three sharks altogether, and I took control of all of them. It was easier than the squirrel before, because water was even more of a vital part of the bodies of these animals. As I made them swim under us, I grabbed the fin of one and held tight to Itachi with the other, and with the shark's help we made it to the surface.

I was gasping for breath when we came to the top, and Itachi was just coming around. I felt for the plant life at the bottom of the ocean and grew it with chakra into the form of a boat. I lifted Itachi over the side, and then climbed in myself. My thoughts were wild for a second as I rested, and then I sat up and released the sharks one by one, returning the water in their bodies to a natural flow. They were unaffected, but did not swim after us again.

Itachi opened his eyes, breathing in the cool air around us. I was already propelling the boat towards the Fire Country and away from the land that still wished to kill me. He touched his head and pulled his fingers away, seeing blood.

"I was unconscious…" he mentioned.

"You picked a great time to hit your head." He sat up and I moved near him, beginning to pull the water from his clothes, leaving him dry. I did that to all of our belongings, even saving the files from the administration building.

"I think that's enough of an adventure before the Chuunin exam, don't you think?" I asked, half joking. I thought back on what had happened since the explosions began.

He gave me a grin. _I didn't realize it was that bad,_ he thought, reading my mind. _I wasn't any help at all. You really controlled a couple of sharks?_

"I know, right?" I said. "Not a jutsu I was planning on using…"

 _Well, it worked. If you perfected that, you'd truly be unstoppable._

"I don't want to be like that…I don't want to be in control of humanity. I don't want to be a monster."

"You're not a monster…" he said softly.

We reached the mainland late that night and slept soundly.


	19. Chapter 19

"We have about a week and a half left," I told Itachi when we had woken up the next morning.

"It will take us three days to get to Konoha from here, and that's if we hurry. Let's take our time and we'll work on invoking lightning on the way. When you get back, you'll have a little less than a week to gain knowledge on your opponent and find a strategy."

We began walking and talking about the methods Isoko used for lightning.

"It takes love, strength, forgiveness, and resolve…" I muttered.

 _Why those?_ Itachi asked himself. His thoughts were racing at breakneck speed, but I was able to piece some of them together.

"Well, the book said that lightning was Amaya's own element affinity…and that was the strongest when it came to the sealing ceremony." I thought about it for a moment. "Nothing Isoko tried worked…she tried having the strength to love and forgive those who wronged her, and nothing. She tried loving and forgiving herself, nothing. She felt the lightning run through her body at that point, but could not form it."

 _Unless,_ Itachi thought, his mind having struck upon a single idea, _Unless…it wasn't her emotions that mattered._

I stopped in my tracks. He was right. "Itachi, you're a genius. It's nothing that I do that matters. If Kasumi feels those emotions too, then our chakra is aligned and I am able to use an element. But…I don't think that she has forgiven herself or her daughter for what happened…"

"That makes sense, and also makes sense why Isoko died. She tried to use the element, but her will wasn't aligned with Kasumi's and she probably didn't have a predisposition for lightning, like you do."

We began walking again. "I can't do anything until I can speak to Kasumi again, and who knows when that will be. For now…will you teach me how to use Raiton?"

He looked at me, a curious glint in his eyes. "Yes. You'll be seen as overly powerful if you can use all five elements…even if you're cheating on one of them."

"I hardly see how using a jutsu is cheating," I said, laughing. He smiled and began to explain to me about molding chakra.

We arrived outside of Konoha about a week later, because we had stopped to train along the way.

"You know you have the power to join the Akatsuki…and you'd be more of a welcome member than many of the others have been," Itachi told me quietly.

"I realize that. But, Itachi, I can't betray my home here. I've been taken in, loved, and that means more to me than joining a powerful organization. I'd rather be happy…I guess…" I trailed off. Being happy and working against Itachi felt like a paradox. "Maybe you will just have to kill me. But, do you promise to wait until I free Kasumi from myself?"

Itachi stopped and looked me in the eye, then took one of his hands and stroked my cheek with his fingers.

"I can't kill you Amaya. But if I don't, someone else in the organization will. But what if…?" A series of thoughts ran through Itachi's head. My eyes slowly widened.

"You don't mean…?" I asked slowly.

"Every person in the Akatsuki is working towards their own goals as well as the goal of the organization. My own haven't changed, but I've begun to see them from a different perspective. You could do this."

I was speechless. As the plan surged through his head and mine, I realized that it could truly be reality. The plan, however, was edged with a shadow. Itachi was hiding something from me, some unknown danger.

"Think about it," he said. "You know how to find me." I blinked, and he was gone.

I stepped into the village, breathing deeply. I wouldn't mind doing what Itachi said…if only I could pull it off. I needed to know what he was hiding first.

As I walked through the village, I saw familiar faces smiling at me and waving…what a difference from my hometown. I stopped and reached into my bag, pulling out the head protector from the Mist.

"Amaya!" a voice called. I looked up and hid the protector quickly, and then smiled at Sakura.

"Hey Amaya! How have you been? No one has seen you since the preliminaries."

"I've been good, Sakura, just up to a lot of training. How are Naruto and Sasuke?"

"Well, we haven't seen Kakashi or Sasuke for a while, but Naruto's in the hospital from over training."

 _I just hope it's enough to face Neji…_ she thought.

"He trained with Ebisu-sama, right?" I asked.

"No, some guy named Jiraya. He's old, and just about as perverted as Naruto is…"

I laughed at that. I knew Jiraya-sama. He was also one of the legendary Sannin. "Naruto was in good hands though, I can tell you that!" I said to Sakura. She smiled.

"Hey, well if I don't see you before the final matches, good luck!"

"Thanks Sakura!"

A few days later I woke up to cheering and music outside of my window. I looked out and saw a parade of people moving towards the main arena. It was finally time.

 _Good luck,_ Itachi told me. _I'll be watching through your mind._

 _Like always,_ I said back, and smiled to myself. Then, I double checked my weapons pouch, proudly tied my leaf head protector on, and set out for the arena.

I got there a little late, and joined everyone standing in the center. The only two people that weren't there were Sasuke and Dosu.

Sasuke was still alive…Dosu was dead. I got that much from Gaara's head.

They began the first match anyway, Naruto versus Neji. The rest of us went up to the waiting room to watch the fight. I scanned the crowd, and saw Hinata and Kiba next to Izumo and Kotetsu. They were watching the fight with intensity. I opened my mind to the people in the stands, and realized that they all thought Neji would win. The fight was good, and by the end Naruto prevailed. The entire arena was cheering for him.

Neji was taken by the hospital unit, and Naruto joined us up in the waiting area. Next match was Gaara versus Sasuke, but Sasuke hadn't shown up yet. The crowd was getting restless, so they moved back the match rather than disqualifying Sasuke.

The match that took its place was Kankuro versus Aburame Shino, but Kankuro forfeited, gathering booing from the crowd.

The next match was mine.


	20. Chapter 20

My opponent was Susumu Mifune. I had beaten his teammate in the preliminaries, and he thought he knew what my jutsus were, but boy was he mistaken.

Before the match began, as we were taking our places on the field, I looked up towards Kotetsu and Izumo. Both of them smiled at me, and I gave them a thumbs up.

"Oh proctor," my opponent said. "How much of an inconvenience would it be if you had to clean up body parts from the field?"

 _Tch…who is this guy?_ Thought the proctor. His name was Shiranui Genma. _He's bloodthirsty._

I replied before the proctor had a chance.

"It's only an inconvenience if you don't dig your own grave first."

 _Interesting,_ Genma thought. _This match should be good._

"Hurry it up!" I heard someone in the audience shout. "We want to see the real match after this little girl!"

"Watch and learn…" I mumbled to myself.

"BEGIN!" Genma shouted.

My opponent started by throwing three kunai at me. I did a backbend to dodge them, and then flipped myself over. Three exploding tags were attached, and they went off. Mifune began laughing, because he thought I was done for. When the dust cleared, however, there was a rock wall around where I was standing that had protected me from the blasts. I, myself, had disappeared.

"You finished my teammate Yoshi this way, but it's not going to work on me!" he shouted, and put his hands on the ground. Metal spikes went into the ground. They were attached to the forearm protectors he was wearing. I could sense chakra seeping into the ground as he began to search out where I was.

 _Damn,_ I thought. He found me, and sent all his chakra in a single column towards my direction. I moved the earth and came out of the ground before he could reach me, but his chakra kept moving through the air until it hit me. I had twisted at the last moment, because I didn't know which way to go, but the chakra had caught me in the arm, causing me to bleed. I scanned Mifune's mind and realized that the spikes helped him manifest his chakra into long invisible blades that could travel as Shikamaru's shadow did. They were invisible to everyone but Mifune. He could literally chop and slice with the chakra, and was planning on doing that to me. He could cut earth and wood, so he thought I was done for.

"Is that all you've got?" he asked me.

"Nah, I'm just holding out to see what your abilities are. Doesn't seem like much…" I replied, egging him on.

"What the hell!" he said, and began to rush straight towards me with his chakra spikes aimed at my body. That was exactly what I wanted him to do. I dodged him at the last second, and he smiled, manipulating his chakra so it would snake after me.

I began moving, dodging, flipping, and twirling, all while watching the smile wipe off of Mifune's face.

"How can you see my chakra?!" he asked.

"I can't!" I exclaimed. _But you can,_ I thought to myself.

His guard dropped, giving me an opening to punch him. I did, head on, and he was knocked over.

"It's gotta be a genjutsu," he muttered, anger mutilating his visage. He was referencing to the fact that I could dodge everything he sent at me. He thought I had created an illusion around him. "You can't hide forever!"

In order to render him useless, I had to get rid of the plates on his arms. I formed some hand signs, breathed in, and shot water out of my mouth, covering the arena with liquid. He stood and was about waist deep in water, but was already soaking wet. I was standing on top of it.

"So you can use water and earth! Big deal!" he shouted, and aimed his arms at me again. He was planning on pulling out his trump card, a chakra blade explosion that would literally rip me to pieces.

I felt the wind stir around me, then lifted up my hands and threw my arms in his direction. A huge gust of wind hit him, and as I formed another hand sign, the water around him turned to ice. He was stuck from the waist down, and every other part of him that had been wet was now frosty. I focused hard on the arm plates, and they snapped off cleanly, and he stared at me with wide eyes.

"W-w-what the h-hell!" he said through chattering teeth.

"Water expands when frozen. Once you were soaked through, I could expand the liquid by freezing it, popping those gauntlets off. To be honest, you're pretty powerful. I never would have expected your chakra to move like that. You're too hasty though. It's hard to win unless you know your opponent's skills, and you severely underestimated me."

"You t-talk t-too much," he said, and then smiled. "D-don't underestimate m-me either!" Water started dripping off of his hair and from around his body. He was changing his chakra to heat and melting away the ice. He lifted his hands without the armbands and shot chakra at me, hitting me dead on. The chakra seeped through my body, grabbing a hold of me from the inside.

"You're going to die! My gauntlets only help me manifest my chakra…but I don't need them! Now, Chakra Blade Explosion!"

I heard the crowd gasp before I was killed, blown up into hundreds of pieces. Some people closed their eyes and flinched as what looked like my body flew into the stands. Some even screamed when they were hit with…water.

"Hmph," my opponent said, not aware that I had used a water clone. "Proctor, I think this match is over."

"Think again."

His eyes went wide, and the last thing Mifune saw before he went unconscious was my foot in his face. I won the match.

I receded the water from the area and returned the field to the way it had been before we began fighting.

There was a smile on Genma's face as the crowd cheered. Many of the leaders from other countries couldn't believe that I could use more than one element, and even Hokage-sama was proud of me.

Temari's match versus Shikamaru was next, but the crowd was still restless, waiting to see Sasuke fight. It was taking a long time, because Shikamaru was planning.

"Damn…" I said.

"What, what?!" Naruto wanted to know.

"He's concentrating so hard…I can feel it…" In reality, Shikamaru was planning almost fifty strategies to use, coming up with the best one and putting it to use. He trapped Temari. I was sure he was going to continue the match, because he had it all planned out in his head. Then, he gave up. He was running low on chakra and knew his limits.

At this point, the crowd was actually into the match. They were perplexed with the intelligence of both Shikamaru and Temari, but they were still hoping Sasuke's match would be next.

It was at that moment that Kakashi and Sasuke decided to show up.


	21. Chapter 21

The next match began, and it was clear what kind of training Kakashi put Sasuke through. He was super fast, about as fast as Rock Lee. He was also using Lee's taijutsu, thanks to the copying Sharingan.

I noticed that Shikamaru and Naruto were gone, and that Temari and Kankuro were freaking out, especially when Gaara formed a ball of sand around himself. Sasuke used Kakashi's technique, chidori, and wounded Gaara, and that's when everything began to fall apart.

A genjutsu was cast on the entire crowd, and the Sand ninja joined the Sound ninja in betrayal of the Leaf.

I watched through the minds of allies and enemies alike as Orochimaru revealed himself as the Kazekage and took the Hokage hostage on the roof.

 _What are you doing Amaya?! Don't just stand there!_

I snapped back to myself as Itachi's voice sounded in my head. I jumped down from where I was, running towards Sasuke. Temari and Kankuro had just left with Gaara, and Sasuke was following. I jumped up after him, but was knocked to the side by a Sound ninja.

"Oh no you don't, you're not going anywhere. Orochimaru has taken a fancy to you, and would like to use you in one of his…experiments."

"Hell no," I replied, and began to fight him. He was tough, but I defeated him. I was about to run after Sasuke when five more Sound surrounded me. Everyone else in the arena was tied up fighting an enemy, and I knew no one would be able to help me. It was time I got to business.

I heated my palms with fire and began to attack, but hand-to-hand combat wasn't working too well. Even with the added heat, it barely fazed them. I opened my mind so I wouldn't be caught off guard, but even still, one managed to slice my cheek with a shuriken. I lifted a bunch of earth off of the ground and began heating it from the inside as Itachi had showed me. Then, with a hand sign, it became lava. I formed the liquid earth into a long snake and began lashing out at the Sound ninja. Everywhere the lava touched them, they burned.

"Retreat!" one of them yelled.

"We can't retreat! If we don't die here, we'll die later at the hands of Orochimaru for not abducting her!"

Anger surged through my body, and I let the lava go. Instead, I grabbed two kunai and heated them until the metal was red hot. Then, I attacked in a fury. I dodged and stabbed until the smell of burning flesh filled the air, and finally, there were no conscious ninja left to attack me.

I looked around me to see Kakashi, Gai, and Genma standing up against two ninja. One was Gaara's sensei, and the other was wearing an ANBU mask. It was Kabuto.

At that moment, the barrier around the Hokage fell, and the ninja holding it up escaped. Kabuto and the other sand ninja disappeared as well, and the three from the leaf gave no pursuit.

Kakashi turned and looked at me, and was quickly by my side.

"Are you okay?" he asked gently.

"I'm…no. The Hokage…Sarutobi-sensei…he's dead. Isn't he?" My question sounded more like a statement.

"Yes."

I didn't meet Kakashi's gaze, and instead turned from him and walked out of the stadium.

Hokage-sama had always been kind to me, no matter what other people thought about me. He judged me on _who_ I was, not _what_ I was. Not a single bad thought flicked through his mind at any point when I spoke with him, and he was always an ear that would listen.

As I looked at the village of Konoha, I saw destruction everywhere. A battle had been raging, and now a long crack ran down the rock face of Sarutobi-sama. And yet, as I looked around me, I saw leaf ninja standing and beginning to pick up the broken rubble surrounding their homes and their lives. _Born from the ashes_. I walked slowly through the streets, seeing blood and bodies littering the ground. As I approached the street my apartment was on, I heard someone's thoughts. I looked around me, but saw no one.

 _Is this what it is like…to die?_

I began to panic. I closed my eyes and sensed the person a mere five feet away from me, yet hidden underneath a collapsed building. I grabbed rocks and threw them to the side, trying to reach this person whose life was near its end.

I pulled away a rock and saw a couple bloody fingers, small, compared to mine.

"Hang on, please!" I said, my voice shaking as I removed more rocks, revealing yet more blood.

 _Mother…Father…_ thought the voice. _Will you be proud of me?_

As I pulled away another large stone, I uncovered the head of a young girl whose eyes were closed. She was barely breathing.

"Help!" I began to scream. "Help!"

No one was close enough to hear me, but I couldn't let this girl die. The bottom portion of her body was crushed, but I didn't want to move her in case I caused more damage.

"I wish I knew medical ninjutsu…" I said to myself. Then I whispered to her, "Please, hang on to life…"

Her eyelids fluttered. I opened my mind and sensed out more people. There was no one close, but there was a little boy hiding inside one of the houses nearby. He was watching through a window. As I read his mind, I realized the girl was his sister.

 _Hey! Please, I need your help!_ I said to him in my mind. His eyes widened and he backed away from the window.

 _Please, don't be afraid! Your sister is dying, and we can help her._ He hesitated for a moment, and then walked slowly toward the door of the house. As he stepped outside, he looked cautiously from side to side for anyone else. As he moved nearer, I beckoned to him.

"She's not well," I said, trying to keep my voice as calm as possible. "And she needs help. Will you go to the hospital and ask for a medical team?"

"I…I'm n-not allowed to l-leave the house…" the boy whimpered.

"Did your parents tell you that?" I asked him. He nodded his head, tears spilling down his face.

"And where are your parents?" I continued.

"T-they're fight…fighting…" he said, trying to contain his tears. "I don't k-know where t-they are!"

"Well, I've been fighting too. And I give you the permission to go. I'll talk to your parents for you, but right now, this is more important. Do you understand?"

He nodded the affirmative.

"Then go! Quickly, please!" I said, and he turned and ran.

I turned my attention back to the girl. Thankfully, she was still breathing, albeit shallow. I took her blood-drenched hand in mine, and her fingers curled instinctively around my palm. I let out a silent sigh of relief, thankful that she could respond in some way.

"Please…" Blood started coming out of her mouth. Her word was so quiet that I hadn't noticed it was her voice.

 _Think to me,_ I told her, _Don't strain yourself._

 _Please,_ she thought. _Save my brother. Mom and dad…I watched them die. They aren't here any more. But please save Rai. Take care of him._

"Don't let go! Your brother…he'll need you more than anything! Please, hold on! We're getting help right now!" My voice cracked and the tears began to fall from my eyes.

 _Please tell Rai, tell him that I love him. I'll be watching out for him from wherever I'll be. Promise me that you'll tell him._

"I…I promise…" My whispering voice answered of its own accord. Inside, my heart broke.

"Thank…you…" she whispered, before she closed her eyes and the grip on my hand weakened.

"No…NO!" I said, still determined to see her live. I began to furiously remove the rest of the rubble from off of her body, and uncovered another hand in the process. The hand didn't belong to her.

 _What is this?!_ I thought to myself, and began moving rock after rock. Next to the girl were three other ninja, two from the leaf, and one from the sand. I could tell by their resemblance that the two leaf ninjas were her parents. From their positions, I could tell that she had run out of the house after them, and they had been caught underneath another building that collapsed.

I slowly stepped back from the pile of rock and sat on my knees facing the dead ninja. I said a silent prayer, and remained in that position until the boy returned.


	22. Chapter 22

He ran around the corner behind me with another older ninja. I turned my head to the side and looked at him. He froze, because he saw the tears streaming down my face. The older ninja ran toward me.

"Please…check the girl. The others are already dead," I whispered to him. I stood up and walked slowly to where Rai stood. His face was wet with his tears as well. I got on my knees in front of him and took him into my arms. As he cried into my shoulder, I picked him up and turned back to the medical ninja.

"I've revived a faint heartbeat," he said. "But she needs critical medical attention."

"What can I do?" I asked.

"If you can help me get her to the hospital, you'll be doing more than enough."

He pulled a small bundle out of his bag, and quickly unfolded it into a workable stretcher. Rai was still crying, so I told him to jump on my back while we helped his sister. We gently moved her body to the stretcher and picked it up, hurrying to the medical center.

When we got her there, I realized Rai had fallen asleep while holding on to my back. His face was still wet from his tears, but I moved him around to my front, holding him.

"Is he related?" asked a nurse kindly. She smiled at me. How could she smile at a time like this? I read her mind on instinct, and I realized it wasn't that simple. The intensity of her emotions caused me to flinch. She was scared, anxious, and worried, but on the outside showed a face completely trustworthy. She was letting nothing, not even the way she felt, get in the way of her duty to the village. I smiled at that.

"This is Rai, he's that girl's brother. Their parents are…dead."

"Oh my," she said softly, her expression changing to pity.

"I have to get back out there. Do you know if there is any place I could take him?"

"We have an area here," she said. "I'll take him for you." I gently placed him in her arms, planting a small kiss on the top of his head. I turned to leave, saying a quick thank you on my way out.

I began to walk toward my initial destination, my apartment. Unfortunately, as I rounded the corner, I saw that my building was now also a pile of rubble. Everything valuable I owned was on me, but I rummaged through some of the rock and found the remnants of my trunk. Some of the clothes inside were untouched, so I grabbed them and carried them while I turned to walk in a different direction. I kept walking, and found myself going back towards the stadium. The people sleeping from the genjutsu were walking delicately from the building. As I entered, I saw ninja waking them one by one and explaining what happened.

I saw Kakashi with Gai, both looking worn and exhausted. They shook hands and Gai left the stadium. Kakashi turned and saw me. I stood where I was.

"Amaya, are you okay?" he asked, stepping closer to me.

"I don't know."

He put his hands on my shoulders and shook me a little bit. My eyes were clouded and I wasn't paying attention to him.

"Amaya!" he shouted. I snapped back to myself and looked at him. "I think you need to lie down…" he told me.

"Where? I have no place to go. My home was destroyed, along with so many others."

Kakashi's eyes softened. "Come on," he said. "You can sleep in my room."

Obediently I followed him to his apartment, which was as spotless and simple as ever. I sat on his bed as he stood, both of us silent.

Kakashi began to speak hesitantly. "I know it's not big, but you can stay here until you find another place…"

"Is…is that…okay?"

"I have an extra set of bedding, I can sleep on the floor."

"Kakashi, no. I don't want to impose on you like that."

He sat down next to me, our arms touching. The feeling of electricity running through my body was now so familiar that it didn't surprise me at all. "Really, Amaya, I don't mind at all."

A small smile broke out on my face as I leaned my head against his shoulder, the electricity manifesting into butterflies in my stomach. "Just don't get any perverted ideas…"

A laugh rumbled from deep in his chest, making my head bounce as his shoulder moved up and down. I began to laugh as well, and soon we were both laughing hard enough to cry.

 _How can I be so happy when I'm with you?_ I thought to myself.

Silence pervaded the room for a couple of minutes as we sat, recovering from our laughter.

"Where are Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke?" I asked, suddenly quite serious.

"They're okay. I sent Pakkun with them, and he checked back in with me a little while ago. The three of them are recovering at the hospital as we speak. Where were you, by the way?"

"Saving lives," I said, and then explained all that happened.

"You must be exhausted."

"Yeah, and honestly, it doesn't take a mind reader to see that you're exhausted too."

He smiled at that. "You're right. And it's getting late. You want to change while I lay out an extra bed?"

I returned his smile and went to the bathroom to change. When I came out, he was shirtless, laying out blankets on the floor and fluffing an extra pillow. "I changed the sheets on the bed too, so they're clean for you," he told me.

"Thank you," I said, knowing that if I argued with him about this I would just lose. Then another thought occurred to me. "Do you wear your mask even when you sleep?" I asked him.

He turned to face me, and laughed. "I didn't even realize I was still wearing it!" I walked toward him and put my hands to his face.

"May I?" I asked, as I slipped my fingers underneath the fabric. He chuckled and nodded his head, and I pulled the mask down to reveal the bottom portion of his face.

"What?!" he demanded when he saw the look on my face. I had raised one eyebrow and was looking at him quizzically. It was utterly strange to see his mouth move. My ears heard the voice that I heard in my head when I talked to him, rather than the always slightly muffled one my teammates and I heard while we trained. He was clean-shaven, his lips were full and soft, his nose completely straight (hard as that is to believe, knowing how many fights he's been in), and the scar over his Sharingan eye just a little farther than where he covered his face. Somehow, none of that was the first thing I noticed.

"Your face," I replied, "You don't have an awkward tan."

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"Your face! I thought you'd be two-toned. I always thought that what was underneath the fabric never saw the sun."

He burst out laughing and didn't stop. When he smiled, I saw two rows of straight white teeth, and I couldn't help but laugh with him. His abs rippled up and down with his laughter, and without thinking I hugged him. His arms wrapped instinctively around me and we both continued laughing together. When the laughter finally died down, I turned my face up towards his, and I finally took in his beauty. I breathed in deeply, taking in his scent. He smelled of hard work and faintly of sweat, but overwhelming that was a warm smell, almost cinnamon, pumpkin, and spice. It reminded me of autumn, and it made me feel safe.

He was thinking about the first time we met. He thought I was full of myself, and back then he saw me as a child. _She's become a woman, a kunoichi, and beautiful._ I blushed at his thoughts.

"I can't hide anything from you, can I?" he asked. _The more I watched you grow and battle with yourself, the more beautiful you became to me. I'm not sure, but I think it was when you spoke my name when you were unconscious, back in the Wave Country._

I turned even redder. "I thought that was a dream!" I exclaimed. I dropped my hands from around his waist and instead took his hands in mine, creating some space between us.

"No, it was quite real," he said, and then smiled and mussed up my hair. "We better get some sleep. It's going to be a long couple of days before the Hokage's funeral, and you and I will be helping set up the ceremony." Talk of the funeral immediately pulled all the life out of our conversation, and I quickly became somber again.

"You're right," I agreed, and began towards his bed. He pulled me back into his arms and gave the top of my head a kiss.

"Don't worry," he said, reading my sadness. "The village will pull back together. It always does." A pause. "Goodnight, Amaya."

"Goodnight, Kakashi."

He reached over and turned off the lights.


	23. Chapter 23

Two days later, we had a funeral for the Hokage. I walked in to find a seat, and suddenly memory after memory poured into my head. Many of the ninja who had spoken with the Hokage were reminiscing about their favorite memories of him. No one saw him in a bad light. I found a place close to the front, my mind so deep in thought that I didn't realize I had taken a spot next to Izumo.

"Amaya?" he said so quietly it was almost a whisper.

I breathed in with surprise. "Izumo…" I said in a rush. I hadn't spoken with him since before I trained with Itachi, back when I was confused and lost. As a matter of fact, I still was confused, but at least I had a plan. And Izumo…sad to say…had no part in it.

The service started before I could say anything else. We both turned respectfully towards the memorial as rain began to fall. Everyone was silent during the funeral, except for the few who were paying respects out loud.

The memories soon became overwhelming and I felt tears falling down my face, dripping from my dark blue eyes. Thankfully no one noticed because of the rain, and many others were tearing up too.

When the service ended, I left quickly, without saying anything more to Izumo. I couldn't face him. The service itself seemed longer than it should have been, but when I checked the time I realized it hadn't been that long. I sat down on a bench and closed my eyes. After a few moments, someone sat next to me.

"Why are you so anxious?" the person asked. It was Sasuke.

"I'm not anxious."

"You're tapping your foot and your heart is racing like you just ran a marathon." That was Sakura.

I opened my eyes and stood up, beginning to pace back and forth. Naruto and Kakashi were also watching me.

"I'll be fine," I said as I stopped pacing and started breathing deeply to slow my heart.

"I'm giving you guys a break from missions for now. We really need to focus on helping rebuild the village. We'll start training again a week from now. When they instate a new Hokage, they will have a plethora of missions for us to complete. But for now, rest and take the time you need to help the village."

My team's sporadic thoughts of the funeral sifted through my head. I realized that each of them were taking Sarutobi's death differently, but they all held one thing in common. The Hokage would have wanted everyone to get back up on their feet, to keep going. That's what they were doing, so I decided that's exactly what I would do, too.

I started with a couple of personal things. First, to make sure that Rai and his sister had a home and were healthy. Second, to help rebuild my apartment complex. I couldn't stay with Kakashi forever.

When I met with Rai, he was at the foot of his sister's bed in the hospital. At just six years old, he had an expression that made him seem so much older. His sister was in a medical induced coma, and did not wake when I walked into her room. Rai, however, began to barrage me with questions. He wanted to know all there was to know about becoming a shinobi, about entering the academy, and about protecting the Leaf Village.

"Woah mister, you've got a lot on your plate if you are planning on becoming a ninja!"

"I want to be able to protect my family, like my parents tried to do. I want to protect her," Rai said quietly. I understood exactly what he meant. In the heart of any shinobi or kunoichi, protection was inherent. Protect your village, protect your family, protect your friends, protect yourself.

"You want to be a ninja? The first thing you need to do is talk to Iruka-sensei. He's one of the best teachers, and you can find him here." I took a piece of paper out and began to write directions on it. Rai's eyes were glistening with tears when I gave it to him.

"I will protect her, like my parents never could!"

"Don't blame your parents Rai. My parents were killed as well, when I was your age. It took me a while to realize it wasn't their fault. And eventually, I forgave their killer too. That entire ordeal made me stronger. Your parents protected you as much as they could. With your determination, however, you can be stronger than they were, and you can protect everyone you love. Forgiveness can make you more powerful than anything else."

"Amaya, will you train me?" He asked, completely serious.

"I won't be able to train you all the time, but yes. When I am not on missions, I will train you."

"Let's start immediately!" he exclaimed. I was taken aback. This little boy who was so fearful when I first found him was now determined to take his fear and turn it into courage and strength. I was moved by his enthusiasm and agreed to take him to train while his sister recovered.

We were running strength and cardio drills when Kakashi found me.

"Rai, take a break and get some water. We'll start some hand-to-hand combat soon." He cheered internally and ran to rehydrate.

"You're training someone?" Kakashi asked, intrigued.

"Yeah. He reminds me of myself in a way. He still has a lot of fear, but he's so determined."

"I understand. Reminds me of someone I once knew too." His thoughts went to an old friend, Uchiha Obito. "Anyway, I've come to tell you a couple things. First, they are relocating all the people from your apartment to another empty complex while they rebuild. They are requesting that everyone from your apartment help with the process. Second, congratulations."

"Congratulations…on what?"

"Becoming a Chuunin."

"What?!"

"You are one of the two who became a Chuunin during the exam. The other was Shikamaru. The country leaders liked the way you used your abilities to your advantage, and they way you thought before you acted. Like with Shikamaru, you planned every aspect of your fight before it happened. You're resourceful and a quick thinker. Congratulations."

Kakashi sounded supportive but inside he wasn't happy.

"What's wrong, Kakashi?" I asked softly as Rai made his way back to us.

 _You're no longer a part of my squad. The country leaders want to make you part of another squad. We were a squad of five, but that was only for the protection of the village. Now that you have become a Chuunin, requiring you to be on a larger squad is no longer necessary._

"Rai, something has come up and I need to go help with the rebuilding. We will continue to train later, okay?" I told him, processing what Kakashi just told me.

"When?" he asked, impatient.

"I'll come find you."

"Okay," he said, disappointed, but turned around regardless, planning on going to his sister.

"Whom do I report to then?" I asked, giving my attention back to Kakashi.

"The new Hokage, whomever that may be. Possibly Jiraya, possibly Tsunade."

"Tsunade? But no one has seen her in ages!"

"Jiraya plans on taking Naruto to find her. They leave in a couple days."

We were silent for a few moments.

"Well, I better move my things from your room," I said finally.

"Yeah, I'll take you to where you'll be staying."

Another moment of silence. Neither of us moved, and then I suddenly hugged him, wrapping my arms around his back. He reciprocated as the familiar electric feeling surged through my body. The electricity felt like comfort now. It was safety.

I thought back to what Itachi had told me about my future. It was my choice, and I would not be betraying my village. Immediately I knew that I would have to choose between the two men I loved. It was either Kakashi or Itachi. Both my teachers and both my friends.


	24. Chapter 24

The following day, I focused on getting my apartment rebuilt.

"Hey Amaya! We need more wood!"

"I'll go grab some!"

I ran through the streets, going quickly because I wanted an early dinner. Before I reached the woodpile, however, I heard Itachi's voice.

"Genjutsu at that level has no effect on me."

He was fighting, but it was rare that his voice would ever come into my mind unless he was speaking to me or I was listening to him.

"Itachi, someone's coming."

That was Hoshigaki's voice, and I never heard him at all. When the voices got louder, I finally realized I wasn't hearing them in my head. They were fighting around the bend in the road from where I stood, by the lake. Why were they in Konoha? And how did I not sense that Itachi was nearby? I quickly ran into the forest on the other side and made my way around to watch. Itachi and Hoshigaki were fighting against Kurenai and Asuma, and it wasn't long before Kakashi showed up as well. I mentally cursed because I knew a showdown between Kakashi and Itachi wouldn't end well. There was also no convenient way for me to interrupt their battle without giving some information about the Akatsuki away, let alone information about my relationship with Konoha's most wanted.

"Keep your guards up. This man became leader of the ANBU at age thirteen!" Kakashi's voice was strong and fierce. He told everyone to keep their eyes closed before Itachi used a technique I had never seen before, called Tsukiyomi. Kakashi's Sharingan eye went wide as I slipped into both of their minds.

Kakashi's pain was so great that I found myself cringing. He was being subjected to seventy-two hours of torture, all spanning just a few seconds. In those few seconds, Itachi's mind was all duty. He was doing what he felt he had to do, but there was also a hint of joy in the torment he was inflicting. Deeper into his mind, that joy stemmed from jealousy.

When all was finished, Kakashi spoke a few words, literally mustering all the strength that he had left. I was shocked that he mentioned the Akatsuki and the chase for the nine-tails, and that was too much for Itachi.

"Kisame. Take Kakashi out. It's time for these people to disappear." Itachi had just given the command to kill my sensei! I couldn't stand by and let that happen! I began to rush forward out of my hiding spot, and Itachi tilted his head in my direction. I froze, only because Gai-sensei came out of nowhere and kicked Kisame backwards.

As Kakashi passed out and the others prepared to fight, Itachi and Kisame decided to retreat rather than draw attention to themselves. They left, and I followed.

"What the hell!" I yelled when I found them.

"The little fish seems angry Itachi," Kisame said, laughing. I sent a large rock towards his head, which he barely dodged. Fire flared out of my hands.

 _You had no right to do that to my sensei!_ I told him in my head.

 _Am I or am I not a part of the Akatsuki?_ He asked in return.

 _I need him. He's my sensei._

 _You don't need him, Amaya, you love him. That's the difference. I don't care for Kakashi the way you do, so it makes no difference to me._

"You're truly heartless!"

 _I told you in the forest that I have my own personal goals. I must do what I can to make my goals a reality, even if he stands in my way._

An image passed through my head. Just for an instant, but there it was. I immediately understood. Itachi was, in a way, fond of me. He saw the love that I had for Kakashi and he was, without a doubt, jealous. It was funny, though, because Itachi never struck me as the kind to be jealous. That emotion always seemed too primal, too common. Too _human_ , really, for him. For other men, jealousy came easily. Itachi always hid his emotions, but I was not blind to them. However distant he was to everyone else, he was close to me. Part of his anger also stemmed from the fact that I _was_ so close, and yet I still chose my sensei over him.

 _So you are human after all…_ I told him. He flashed a glare in my direction. I took it as my cue to leave.

 _This is it,_ I thought to myself on my way back to the village. _I will have to choose between them. Where do my loyalties lie?_ Needless to say I was angry with Itachi.

I wandered my way past the shops and towards Kakashi's apartment. I knew I would find him there. However, the voices I heard from inside caused me to turn away. Asuma, Kurenai, and Gai were still there, and from the thoughts running through their heads, it appeared that Sasuke had found out about Itachi's arrival in town. He left in search of Naruto, who was off with Jiraya trying to find Tsunade.

There was nothing for me to do. From what they were saying, Kakashi wouldn't wake until they found someone with the medical ability to save him, and that would take awhile. I left the building and began walking towards the memorial stone, to pay my respects.

I never really visited the stone, because I wasn't from this village. Today, however, I felt the need to pay my respects to the dead. When I reached the stone, I quickly noticed that I was not alone. There were a few other people laying flowers down and shedding a tear or two. Some were here for the most recent deaths, others for loved ones who died in battle long ago.

There was a bench nearby, and I remained there for much of the afternoon. The sun was shining brightly, and I finally left after a slight sunburn had flushed my arms and face. The tight pain there helped me take my mind off of Kakashi and Itachi, but unfortunately reminded me of something else I had to do.

 _Izumo,_ I thought.

I found him running errands with Kotetsu.

"Izumo!" I called to him. He stopped and looked at me, smiling. "Can I talk to you?"

Kotetsu had stopped as well, but Izumo waved him on so we could talk alone.

"Amaya," he started, but I cut him off.

"I like you, Izumo," I blurted before I thought to think.

"I like you too, Amaya." He smiled and started to give me a hug. I backed away, causing confusion on his face.

"No, you don't understand." My face fell as I continued to explain. "I like you, but I _just_ like you. You're my friend, and I'm thankful for that, but I can't see you as more. Everything that happened before the Chuunin exam…I'm sorry for that. I was confused, and lost, and I just needed someone." When I glanced up at him, he was giving me a blank stare, processing what I was saying. "Look, Izumo, I'm not going to lie to you. I enjoyed every moment of that day with you, and I still want your friendship. If truth be told though…I'm in love with someone else."

He was silent, so I slipped into his head to really see how much pain I was causing him. He was sad, at first, but fury and anger soon replaced that as understanding came to his mind. His eyes narrowed at me and he spoke a single word that made my heart skip a beat.

"Kakashi."

The look on my face gave him the answer to his statement. I didn't have to read his mind to realize what this meant. He knew that I loved my sensei. If he told the village leaders, nothing good would result.

"I'm sorry, but I can't help how I feel," I explained as I dropped my face.

"You're not right for him. You can't even be with him, he's your sensei."

"I know that!" I snapped at him. My tone softened as I saw his surprise at my anger. "I know I can't be with him. But that doesn't change the way I feel."

Izumo looked at me for a moment, shook his head angrily, and stalked off in the direction Kotetsu went.

Anger surged through me. _How could he be so insolent!?_ I thought to myself. _If Kakashi was in love with someone else, I would understand…wouldn't I?_ That thought made me pause for a moment. Truth be told, I would probably be as angry as Izumo was right now. _Of course, Kakashi and I aren't even in a relationship. I love him, but I still don't know exactly how he feels about me._

When my thoughts about the subject trailed off, I thought about how much I had been thinking lately. I spent too much time thinking and too little doing. It was about time that changed. I couldn't talk to Kakashi, Itachi, or Izumo anyway, so what did I do? I trained.

Day in, day out, I trained. I worked on rebuilding my apartment and I trained. I trained with Sakura (Sasuke was in the hospital from trying to fight Itachi). I trained by myself and I trained Rai. His sister had yet to wake from her coma and the hospital staff was waiting for Tsunade along with the rest of us. If Jiraya and Naruto were successful in bringing her back, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Rock Lee would need her medical assistance as well.

Missions were slim for us while we rebuilt the village, so I trained. I trained to take my mind off of my worries, to clear my head. I did it because I wanted to and because I had to, and I continued working myself until the day Naruto and Jiraya returned.

Thankfully, they didn't return alone.


	25. Chapter 25

The first thing Tsunade did was heal those in the hospital. I was with Rai's sister when she awoke. When she opened her eyes, Rai was standing over her, smiling. She immediately smiled back and tears began falling from both of their faces.

"Shiomi," Rai said quietly, speaking her name. Even to me, he wouldn't speak her name out loud, for fear that he might lose her. Now, it was heart wrenching to see their reunion. I slipped out of the room in search for Kakashi.

When I knocked on his door, I didn't hear an answer. I turned the knob and walked in, but the room was empty. Go figure, he gets healed today and he's already out and about. I shouldn't have expected any less. I extended my mind and searched the village for him, but before I could find him, a bird landed on my shoulder.

"You too?" A voice came. "Tsunade-sama must be making use of everyone." I turned toward the location of the voice and saw Gai speaking to me.

"What is this?" I asked him, motioning towards the bird.

"It's a tool the Hokage uses to gather the Jounin and send them on missions."

"I'm not a Jounin though. Why would she want me?"

"The Hokage has her own reasons. You should go and see though. From what I hear, she doesn't like waiting."

I took his advice and gave up my search on Kakashi. Little did I know I'd find him on my way to the administration office. Sasuke's voice reached me first.

"What the hell do you know?! Don't talk to me like you understand!"

"Hey…calm down…" Kakashi's voice came. They were above me in one of the trees.

"What if I were to kill the one you love most?! How far would you stray from what you just said? I can make you feel true pain!" I was frozen, listening to Sasuke speak. I was surprised he would talk to our sensei that way.

"That would work, however, unfortunately, for me no such person exists. Those people have already been killed."

There was the answer I had been looking for. My face fell in humiliation. How could I ever think that Kakashi could love me?

"I've also lived in a long, hard era. I understand how terrible true pain and loss are. We aren't the lucky ones…that's for sure. But we aren't the worst off. Both you and I have found precious companions." His mind flashed through images of Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto. _Team seven,_ he thought. I wasn't in the picture. He did not think of me. I turned and ran before the tears could well up in my eyes.

 _His team. Was team seven ever my team? I was just placed there to be watched, controlled. Kakashi doesn't love me…I'm a fool to think that._ It felt though, like my heart was breaking. I'm not even a precious companion to him. Just…well, what exactly _was_ I to Kakashi? Every time I was with him, he gave me hints, hugs, he mussed my hair…it was as if he loved me. Why did I not come across his thoughts?

I had to go see the Hokage. She didn't like to wait, and I had already taken my sweet time. I put on a blank face and walked toward her office. When I entered, she glanced at me.

Kakashi was standing in the corner with his book open, and he raised an eye lazily to look at me. I could tell the Hokage was irritated, and when I skimmed her mind it was because I was late. Later than Kakashi, which was saying a lot.

"I have heard about your skills as a kunoichi," Tsunade started. "I'm sure Kakashi has told you that you will no longer be a part of team seven. You have been advanced to a Chuunin, and this is your first mission as such. You will be paired with Kakashi for this mission. He personally chose you because of your abilities. I have heard that your strength complements his well, so I assented."

"I'm going on a mission with Kakashi-sensei?" _Great…_ I thought to myself.

"This is an A-ranked mission."

"H-hokage-sama…I'm only a Chuunin!" A-ranked missions were only given to Jounin with high-level abilities.

"This mission requires someone of your abilities, and with the recent war, we are short-staffed as is. There will be no more questions or interruptions, understand?"

I nodded.

"Your mission is to carry vital documents to a man named Kasuga Hachirou. He is scheduled to be in the village of Otafuku Gai tomorrow. He must read the documents in your presence, and if he will not comply to the instructions, you are to assassinate him."

I left the Hokage's office with tons of questions about the mission, and for the moment, my issues with Kakashi were forgotten. I couldn't jeopardize the mission and our teamwork with my own stupid emotions.

"Are you ready to go?" asked Kakashi. "You don't need to pick up anything else before we leave?"

"I'm ready." We took off, and on the way to the village I asked some of my many questions.

"Who is Kasuga Hachirou, and why would he not want to comply to what is in those documents?" I began.

"It's not for me to say. As ninja, we must follow the orders of our village. We are tools to be used by the leaders, and in return they promise us a home, a job, and peace."

"A shinobi is more than just a tool." I thought back to Haku and my brother. "What if we disagree with the mission we are given? Don't we have a right to know, since we are the ones carrying out the orders?" I sensed in his mind that he knew more about the mission, but he did not want to divulge it to me.

"We can choose missions to an extent, but refusing a mission is looked down upon. We also get the details of a mission as well, but we are sworn to secrecy about a mission's contents. We cannot even discuss among others in our own village."

"I'm on this mission with you. I have a right to know why we are doing this," I said, determined to hear our mission from his own lips.

 _I can tell you here, but that's it,_ he thought to me. _You never know who is listening. The documents are an order to leave the fire country. Hachirou is a headhunter, someone who pays big money for the dead bodies of powerful ninja. He usually remains within his realm in the river country, but the town of Otafuku Gai is known for its beautiful women and for prostitution. He's there, no doubt, for that reason, but once he entered the Fire Country, he left all hope for his life behind. You see, Amaya, he once lived in Konoha, but started his bloody business by killing two of Konoha's most powerful ninja._

 _Then why aren't we just killing him? Why give him a chance to leave?_ I asked.

 _The documents we take him aren't just an order to leave the country. They also order him to return all the bodies of the ninjas from Konoha that he has. I doubt he will comply, however, because the Hokage is asking him to give up his way of living._

 _Why did I need to come along?_

 _Well, first of all, because of your mind reading jutsu. I need to know exactly what we are going to face when we get there. Second of all, because you're beautiful._ _You'll need to do a little bit of acting._


	26. Chapter 26

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I asked, clearly uncomfortable in the kimono.

"It's the only idea we have," he said, putting a stray strand of my hair back behind my ear. He left his gloved hand on my cheek for a moment. "You'll know what he's thinking. Do you have your kunai?"

"Shuriken and senbon too, just in case."

"Good. Now go make your entrance. Remember, he's the one with the hooked nose and the golden beard."

I nodded. I took a deep breath outside the doors, and then, with the biggest smile I could muster, I pushed them open.

The room was dark and smoky, but the first thing I heard was laughter. To be more exact, women giggling. My smile faltered for a moment, and no wonder. I was pretending to be a whore. After my first sight of the room, I regained my composure and began looking for the man I was supposed to seduce. Thankfully I didn't have to look long. He was sitting on a large couch with two other women beside him. They were already falling out of their kimonos, and it took more strength than I thought I had to keep the smile on my face.

 _Found him,_ I thought to Kakashi, who was preparing to make his own entrance.

 _How many ninja are with him?_ I quickly scanned the room and the rooms beyond. Within the vicinity, there were twenty-two people, fourteen of them whores. I was not including the owner of the establishment. He was tied up to a post outside, thanks to Kakashi.

 _Four men sworn to protect him. They are all in this room. Another of his guards has already taken a woman to one of the other rooms. There are also two more female guards here, dressed as I am. He's taking every precaution he can._

 _Get as close to him as possible. I'll wait for your signal._

I took a couple of steps towards him. Hachirou was not handsome by any means, but his eyes were penetrating. When his eyes caught mine, I made sure not to look away. I held his gaze while his thoughts ran through my head. He sat forward on the couch, completely disregarding the two girls next to him.

"And who is this little flower?" he asked, with a voice dripping with curiosity. "She has the most interesting eyes I have ever seen."

"Funny," I said, trying to seduce him. "I was going to say the exact same thing about you."

"Really?" he asked, completely intrigued. "What's your name, flower? You seem young."

"Amaya. And you're right. This is my first night." At that, I had him. He wouldn't let me slip out of his sight. He shooed the other girls off the couch and motioned me over. The two female guards in the room were wary of me, but the men weren't. In his mind, Hachirou was completely interested in me. I needed to get him to trust me, and quickly, before Kakashi could enter.

He took me by the hand and sat me on his lap. "You can show a little more skin than that, can't you?" I giggled, but on the inside I wanted to slap him in the face. He took the sleeve of my kimono and tugged it a little, revealing a bare shoulder. I began to panic on the inside when he put his hand on my thigh. He would reach my weapons if he got any higher. I put my hand on his to stop him. He was instantly wary, and he gave me a strange look.

"I'm sorry," I said, breathlessly. "I just…it's my first day…and I…I want to move slower…" I moved my hand to his face and kissed his cheek lightly. He reeked of sake and smoke.

 _Kakashi…now would be a good time!_ I yelled at him in my head as Hachirou moved his hand from my leg to my waist. He shoved his lips onto mine. Though every bone and muscle in my body wanted to twist away from him, I didn't. I had a role to play, and this was an A-ranked mission. I closed my eyes and thought of Kakashi, and I began to kiss him back.

Kakashi came into the room, and every one of Hachirou's men went on guard. Hachirou stopped kissing me, thankfully, and looked up at Kakashi, thinking he was another client. He was definitely drunk.

"There's women to go around, sir," he told Kakashi. "All but this one right here. She's mine." He gave me another big wet kiss, and anger immediately flared in Kakashi's mind.

"I'm not here for a woman. I have a document for you, from the Hokage." He took the paper out from his vest and handed it over.

 _Kakashi, all the men in here are dangerous. The two women with their kimonos still fully on are also dangerous. The rest are innocent._

Hachirou pushed me to the side as he read the edict. Then, he laughed out loud and ripped the paper in two. "You think I need this? I'll leave the fire country on my own damn time. And no way is she putting me out of business."

 _Take out the two men next to you first._

"Is there something wrong?" I asked innocently. "If you'd like, I can show the mean man what he's missing." Without a word, I climbed on top of Hachirou, straddling him. He liked that. He didn't like my next few words. When I was inches away from his lips, I whispered, "Sorry, but that's the man I love." By the time confusion showed on his face, he was already dead. I had put a senbon in the vein in his neck, killing him instantly. No one else in the room had noticed yet.

I sat up and screamed, drawing the attention of all the other ninja in the room. That gave Kakashi a chance to attack the two nearest to him.

I took out one of the females first, and then turned on one of the males. Kakashi had taken out three by that time. Only one of the females was left, and with all the other women screaming, the man in the back had come out and was on guard. It was two versus two now.

I went after the guy. He was an easy target, because he didn't know what was going on. Then, I joined Kakashi, who was having a harder time. He was using his Sharingan, but the woman he was fighting was fierce. With both of us, however, we took her down and left her unconscious.

By the end, my hair was disheveled and my kimono was ripped from the bottom.

"Can we leave, please? I asked, my voice thin and wavery. I was feeling sicker and sicker the longer we stayed in the room. The taste of sake and smoke was still in my mouth, and I desperately wanted to change. Kakashi wordlessly walked over to me and pulled up the sleeve of my kimono, covering my shoulder again. Then he wiped some of the sweat off of my face and put one strong arm around my waist. With his other hand, he pulled down his mask, and then he kissed me.

Kakashi kissed me. He kissed me, and what did I do?

I started crying.

We spent the night in Otafuku Gai. Kakashi held me in his arms on the balcony of our hotel, electricity spreading across my skin. I was still shaken over the mission we had just completed.

"Do you ever have missions you hate?" I asked quietly.

"Yes. As ninja, we must bear through them. There have been easy missions and hard ones. Missions where I lose people who are close to me, and missions where I gain friends. It is all just part of the life we live."

"Earlier, before we met with the Hokage…I heard you talking to Sasuke." I explained everything to him. "You said you had close companions, and you thought about team seven…but you didn't think about me. I _know_. What am I to you?"

He sighed. "You're my student as well, and I care about you. But at the same time you're not my student, and I don't hold you in the same category as the other three. You're beautiful, and it's been a long time since I've let myself care about someone the way I care about you."

I frowned, thinking about Itachi. I hadn't talked to him in a while, but the way I had been acting felt so immature. When I was with Itachi, I loved him, and yet the moment I saw Kakashi again, I loved _him._ _But is it all about love?_ I asked myself. What was my purpose? Somehow, I had been gifted with so much power. I could control four of five elements, read peoples' minds, control their bodies if I wanted too, and I was considered beautiful by many people. All of a sudden, I felt wrong sitting in Kakashi's arms. I needed to think.

"I need to go to bed," I said abruptly, and stood up to go inside the room. Kakashi was completely befuddled by my actions, and yet he didn't say a word.

Sleep did not come to me that night, but I came to the conclusion of what I had to do next. It almost felt like betrayal, but I knew that Kakashi was not meant for me. Not like this. No matter how he made me feel, I was still a monster. Maybe a guardian was housed inside of me, but while she was, I knew I couldn't give Kakashi the life he deserved. He needed someone who would be able to grow old with him. Someone who could give him children of his own, without the threat of a power like mine. My ancestors made enough mistakes with the power Kasumi granted, and it was my duty to end that.

I was subdued on the way back to Konoha, and Kakashi noticed. We returned to the Hokage's office, where she asked to speak with Kakashi alone before she spoke with me. He was in the office for a while, and when he came out, his mind was buzzing with frantic worry. Sasuke had been taken, and a team of four Genin and a Chuunin were sent out to retrieve him. Shikamaru, Naruto, Chouji, Neji, and Kiba. I froze, and was about to go with him, but Tsunade's voice called me back to the office.

 _Go,_ Kakashi thought to me. _Sasuke and Naruto are my subordinates. I will find them and bring them back._

We parted ways as I entered Tsunade's office.

"Shut the door." I did as she commanded. "You've completed an A-ranked mission," she began. "That's quite a feat, for a Chuunin."

"I had quite a bit of help," I said. "I should never have been allowed on that mission in the first place." Tsunade was surprised at the frankness of my voice.

"Kakashi had faith in you. He says that your skills are much higher than that of a Chuunin. I know about your abilities, Amaya." _And your mind reading._ Surprise came over my face.

"Did Kakashi tell you that?" I asked.

"No, it was left in a note that the last Hokage wrote. He had it in a secret chamber that I found…don't worry, I'm the only one that knows," she assured when a look of frustration came over my face. I didn't even know how Sarutobi-sensei knew.

"You completed the last mission without hesitation. Kakashi explained to me everything that you had to do," she continued. "I know you just became a Chuunin, but we could use talent like yours on the ANBU squad. Especially now, since the village's forces are dwindling."

I took a moment to consider the option. She sincerely thought I could help, and being on the ANBU squad would be quite prestigious.

"No." I replied.

"Excuse me?" she asked, clearly confused and irritated. Apparently, not many people passed up this opportunity.

I made eye contact with her. "I have another proposition."

I stepped out of Tsunade's office feeling much better. Now that the decision was made, there was no going back. I only wondered what Kakashi would do. Tsunade's thoughts echoed mine.

No, Kakashi wouldn't be happy. I doubted Tsunade would be completely happy either. Not many people were, when they were betrayed.

 _The next time you come back, it might mean your death,_ Tsunade's voice came from behind the closed door. I smiled to myself. I knew that already. It wasn't a surprise.

I rounded the corner to my apartment and gathered up my things. I wrote a note to Kakashi, Sakura, and Naruto, if they returned. I had a feeling that Sasuke wasn't going to come back. I delivered them to empty mailboxes, and then began taking steps down the main road toward the entrance of the village. It began to rain, and the smell of barbeque drifted from a nearby shop.

"Amaya! What are you doing?"

I turned around and saw Rai running towards me, his sister walking and laughing behind.

"I have to go, Rai, and I have a feeling I will be gone for a very long time." He was confused.

"Why do you have to go?" he asked.

"I'm fulfilling a duty to the village," I said sincerely. "And a duty to myself." By that time Shiomi had reached us, and she was listening intently to my words. "Rai, promise me this. Never stop training, and protect your sister." I kneeled down and gave him a peck on the top of his head. "Shiomi," I said, looking to her. "Stay strong for him. Take care of him, please."

"I will do that," she said, and Rai nodded his head diligently as well.

"I'm going to tell you a secret. You must not tell this to anyone. Do you promise?" I waited until both of them nodded their heads.

"In the next few years, when people speak my name, you'll hear them whisper 'betrayal.' The secret is, it only looks like betrayal. I have a mission, Rai, and I will stop at nothing until that mission is complete." I stood up and looked toward the main gates. "I need to go," I said. The rain had picked up, and evening was coming.

"Will you promise me that you will come back?" Rai asked, innocently. I thought for a moment, wondering if I could keep that promise if I made it.

"Yes, Rai, I will come back," I finally said. "But I will be a different person. When I come back through those gates, I might be a stranger to you."

"I don't care, as long as you come back!" he said confidently. I smiled sadly. He was young, and naïve. Shiomi gave me a knowing look, but she didn't say a word.

"Goodbye, Rai, Shiomi."

"Goodbye, for now, Amaya."

I turned from them and walked toward the gate of the village. When I stepped through it, I took a deep breath as I looked out into the night rain that fell upon the earth.

 _Itachi!_ I called out mentally. I felt his conscious stir on the other side of our bond. _I'm ready._

I received two words in response.

 _It's time._

* * *

 ** _A/N:_ ** Hey everyone, thanks for reading to the end. This is the final chapter of the first part of this story. To be honest, I'm not sure when I'll work on the second part...I've got a story line but currently on hiatus for that.

If you've read to the end, I'd love reviews...this was my first story and I know it started out a little bit shakey. Maybe I'll go back and clean it up a bit at some point.


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